A Tale of Two Brothers
by ringosatou17
Summary: Alternate Timeline. An orphanage in the middle of Takasaki is besieged by three evil spirits, and now SPR must find out how to make them rest in peace with a new member that strangely makes Mai blush with the mere idea... And Naru isn't pleased.
1. Revelations

**_A Tale of Two Brothers_**

* * *

><p><strong>Full Summary<strong>:  
>Alternate Timeline, revised edition of Angel's Smile: The Day You Went Away. Taniyama Mai receives a phone call from a mysterious person, one that Naru had least expected to call. And from then on, she is introduced to a topsy-turvy chain of events ultimately leading up to her attempt to answer the hardest question in her life.<p>

Well, it can't get any worse, right? But with Eugene Davis's entry into SPR, everything goes awry—and a little bit more about Naru is starting to reveal itself as Mai's world tumbles into pieces.

* * *

><p><strong>IMPORTANT<strong>! Read this! DL, DR!

**Pairings**: NaruMai. My one and only Ghost Hunt OTP.

**Genres**: Supernatural & Romance

**Disclaimer**: I will never own Ghost Hunt, 'kay? All rights reserved by all concerned parties.

* * *

><p><em><strong>File 1:<br>**__Revelations_

* * *

><p>I thought that the Naru in my dreams is kind—because the real Naru is kind.<p>

Or at least, that's what I've always believed.

* * *

><p><em>April, Saturday.<em>

The world seemed truly at peace, or so I have thought at that particular moment in time as I stood in the midst of the fog of my hazy dreams. I won't have to associate myself with Shibuya Psychic Research at the moment, was what ran in my mind as I stood in a meditative trance in the middle of my la-la land. Maybe even if Naru had insisted, I wouldn't have budged from the serenity in my current world.

I rounded a corner with all the lightness of a spirit. Then, and then, I see him. Him!

"N-Naru?"

No way, absolutely no way in hell will I deny myself from looking at those exotic and straightforward blue eyes, those wonderful eyes dyed with the color of the lightest midnight. And look at that slightly arrogant upturn of his aristocratically proud nose! His pale lips were in a straight, unceasing line as he glanced at me carelessly, as if I was a mere statue at that particular moment, in that particular place.

I so badly wanted to shout at him, to tell him that I am here, that I am alive. But how—? I can't move any part of my body… let alone…

Then, with an ethereally gentle expression, he gazed directly at me… and smiled.

Yes. He smiled. Ah, this is a dream, after all!—Mai-chan, why look so disappointed? H-hey, stop showing that face!

He finally walked away, and vanished off in the foggy haze of my sleep. And that's where I realize that maybe, just maybe, I'll never really get to see him smile like that in real life…

* * *

><p><em>April, Monday after school.<em>

I pulled open the heavy door of the office of Shibuya Psychic Research in downtown Shibuya, Tokyo. As I pulled my bag off my shoulder, I immediately spotted Matsuzaki Ayako, also fondly called by SPR members as "Miko-san" due to her secondary profession, sitting on one of the black couches that surrounded the small, serene coffee table. I was rather surprised at this impromptu visit—traditionally, Ayako doesn't like to visit the SPR office unless personally asked to by Naru himself because of the rather reasonable fear of running a large risk of meeting my boss in one of his surlier moods. The kind of mood that makes you shrivel up when he just enters the room. Yeah, I love that. Absolutely.

"Good afternoon, Ayako," I greeted her, and as was custom, tacked the magical additional word at the end of my sentence. "Tea?"

"Tea'll be nice, but I'm also looking for Naru and Lin. Do you know where they may be? I have received a rather unusual case concerning one of Naru's most obscure areas—music."

"Well…" I prepared some tea while I thought carefully. Naru and Lin-san's plans were not of the kind that they'll want me to meddle with, not that I'm particularly interested in them, though. "I just came here like yourself. It's not as if I had any idea. Maybe they went out for a bit? They left the door unlocked, after all..."

"I see…"

While I was pouring some of the tea I made for Ayako in a cup, the phone rang. I handed Ayako her tea hastily and turned to the phone, and for a moment, hesitated to pick it up since Lin-san was usually the one assigned to answer the phone. However, under Ayako's slightly accusing glare, I finally relented and picked it up, cursing my job at times like these when everyone just seems to think that they have ghosts in their houses when—

"Hello, this is Shibuya Psychic Research." Gotta focus on the call first, y'know? I'll get back to you on that topic later.

"_Oh, hello,_" a pleasant and mellow male voice answered me. I noticed a slight foreign twang as he spoke (his "o" sounds were slightly rounded on the edges), but other than that his mastery of the language was astounding.

"What can I do for you sir?" I said, just like what a polite and well-trained desk receptionist would do.

"_Well, I'd like to schedule for an appointment with Shibuya-san. He's the president of this agency, right?_" I had a rather strong mental image of an obvious smile on the speaker's face when he said Naru's surname, but I declined to comment. It would have seemed rude.

"Appointment?" I said in a surprised tone. "Well, I could, sir. But as a matter of fact, you could easily walk through the doorway of our office and demand for a consultation. Clients of our agency often do that since there is usually no great demand for agencies which tackle paranormal activities, so there's no need to check for a vacancy."

"_Yeah, I see,_" the mellow voice on the other line said. "_Well, I would like to set an appointment date and time, all the same. I don't like to rush things into an unsystematized way, you see._"

"It's okay, sir." I thought of a date when Naru will be most likely present. "How about Thursday this week, 8 am?"

"_That's fine. I'll be there right on the dot. Well, goodbye._"

"Wait just a minute, sir! What is your name?"

"_Oh sorry. That was a bit dumb of me. Just write Eugene Davis down, please. _(_So he is a foreigner_, I thought.)_ You got that right? Well, than you for the time. I'll go now._"

There was a click on the other line, then silence.

"Who was that?" Ayako asked.

"I don't know. A client asking for an appointment with Naru." And I was right, I didn't really know him… yet.

* * *

><p><em>April, Thursday morning.<em>

It was an unusually warm day. My eyelids were already drooping. As in, _droooooping_… Whaa—!

Taniyama Mai, steady yourself!

Uh, even lecturing myself didn't bolster my eyelids to keep themselves awake.

Oh no… If Naru catches me at it again, I'll really get it. Not that he really assaults me physically or anything… the only times that our skins had actually come on contact were when he tried to rescue me from a manhole in a past case (I say 'tried' because I accidentally dragged him after me) and when he tried to rescue me (again with the "tried"… how many times he had tried!) from the room that caved in when we were in the Ryokuryou High case. The problem was that the ceiling had crashed on us then. Well, at the very least he successfully shielded me from the ceiling…

Why am I thinking like that? Arghh!

I prepared a thermos full of tea. Naru was partial to tea rather than coffee during days like this when we were just passively waiting for further clients.

Then my nemesis entered the main office almost immediately after I had filled a mug for him. Shibuya Kazuya (fondly called Naru, and if in an angelic state of mind, Naru-chan) is not really the first person that would come to my mind if someone mentioned the word "humble." Is he humble? Oh no, my readers who are new to Shibuya Kazuya's extreme and rather shameless narcissism. But at first glance, he really has every right to tell the world that he's _handsome_, that he's a notch _smarter_ than we are, and that he's undoubtedly the most _deceitful_jerk the world has ever seen.

Hurray for narcissistic Naru-chan!

"Mai," he called me in the gorgeous voice that I had come to be endearingly irritated at, if not despised. "Tea."

Okay, he's not exactly a man of few words when it comes to describing himself, but still.

"I know," I said sardonically, automatically handing him the mug that I was filling lately. As his slim white fingers grasped its handle firmly, the door opened and in came Takigawa Houshou (aka "Bou-san", again because of his secondary profession, or else "Takigawa Norio" if you're one of the fans of his rock band), Matsuzaki Ayako, Hara Masako (affectionately nicknamed "Doll-san"), and John Brown.

Naru's eyes, which were unnervingly cold like steel at that moment, settled on them.

"Hiya, Naru-chan," Monk-san said with his usual tact. "We thought we'd come and, you know, uh, see you."

Masako and Ayako stifled a giggle each at the contrast in Naru's and Monk-san's expressions. I was also fighting hard not to laugh. John, however, put in.

"I know it's not the best day in the week, Shibuya-san," he said hesitantly. "But it's been a while since we heard from ya and Mai-girl."

He smiled at me, his wide blue eyes innocuous. I smiled back. Twenty-year-old John was too much baby-faced to be seriously considered as a priest.

I poured tea for all of them as they sat on the couches surrounding the coffee table. John was right, I haven't heard from them for quite a while now. It had been almost a month already from when we solved the Yoshimi case, and this is the first time that we're going to be together since that incident when Naru was rushed to the hospital.

At first glance, the SPR members when all together might seem to the casual passersby as a big family. I've always thought of that myself. Monk-san, as the brotherly figure in our group, is the father. Then Ayako can be the mother, nagging yet caring. Lin-san is the quiet and ever-ready uncle. Yasuhara-san is the reliable, mischievous oldest sibling. John is the next brother, who is gentle and kind. Then that must make Masako and me the sisters in the family—we are both sixteen. And Naru, even though technically older than me by about a year, is the much-spoiled youngest son.

You must be laughing by now at my imagination. Yes, if we really are a family, we must be the funniest family for miles around.

"Yasuhara can't come at all," Monk-san was saying as I handed over mugs to each of them. "Total bummer."

I saw Masako smile at Naru indulgently, which made my blood boil as a distinctive murmur settled on the office as they got absorbed into their own little conversations.

"Why are you all here?" my boss said coldly, shutting the folder he was holding with a vicious snap. Or is that my imagination working again? "I didn't remember inviting you for a chat." Oh yes, the bliss of listening to Director Shibuya's sharp tongue. It's an unwelcome bonus for his workers—or for me at least.

Bou-san, however, smiled at Naru in a highly mysterious manner. "Come on, Naru-bou. I have an important business to talk with you about. And I dragged them all here because I want them to hear with their own ears. There's something that I had badly wanted to ask you. Can I have some of your time?"

Naru stared at Bou-san, his eyes very like two chips of ice in their coldness. "…Right now?"

"Yeah." Bou-san's eyes sparkled with satisfaction as Naru showed signs of unwillingly giving in. "My question is really urgent, and the sooner you can answer me, the better it will be for all of us."

I wondered what Bou-san was planning to do at that moment.

"—Well, it won't hurt anyone if I hear you out for a while, at least." Naru said this with a sigh. I got up to prepare him some tea, but to my utter surprise, Bou-san beat me to it, the teapot in his hand as he smirked at Naru, not very much unlike with how a naturalist smiles at the new addition to his butterfly collection.

"Sorry, but the question is a little bit complicated and you'd need to remain seated for quite a while. So which tea would you want to drink? Maybe some Earl Grey or Darjeeling Black?"

"Bou-san." Naru looked slightly confused at Bou-san's actions, and no doubt we were all as mystified as Naru finally obliged Bou-san and sat on his usual couch that was turned away from the window. "Maybe we should get straight to the—"

Bou-san laughed. "Just humor me, on this one, Naru-chan. I promise I wouldn't annoy you. Well, which one? Hot, or maybe you'd like it iced? With milk, or with lemon perhaps? Or maybe you want Cambric Tea or Chai? Scented with apple? And then, maybe some cookies to accompany it, or butter cake? Or maybe you'd like both? Nah, it's complicated, isn't it?"

Naru's face held the slightest hint of annoyance, but he stayed put and just sat back to glare at Bou-san. "…_Whatever_."

"Well, you seem to hate my beating around the bush, so I'll ask my question right away." Bou-san paused to study Naru's eyes, which had both become very defiant. "What will you do after this Yoshimi business? Since we have personally witnessed that abnormally huge energy stored up inside you?" Bou-san eyed Naru's right arm, and I saw a hint of bandage still peeking under his sleeve. "And you still haven't fully recovered from its aftereffects, I see…"

Naru's face switched back to its usual expression: annoyingly impassive. "I do not think that it has anything to do with you, Bou-san."

"Eh? Come on now, Naru-chan." Bou-san sighed. "Of course it's got something to do with me. And not just me, but with the entirety of SPR. We're all friends, aren't we?"

"If this is another thoughtless farce, which is certainly getting quite usual these days, you've chosen the wrong person to talk to. So, are you deliberately calling me for this absurdity?"

"It's neither an absurdity nor a farce, and you know it, Naru-chan." Bou-san's dark eyes were suddenly bordering on the serious. "We're wondering what you and Lin-san will do after this. This matter ain't something to be taken lightly! It's a very serious topic that should be discussed whether you like to or otherwise!"

Naru scowled. "Bou-san, I assure you that it's not your place to worry about it."

"But isn't it natural for us to get worried about you?"

Naru's voice was sharpened to an edge. "Then, Bou-san, don't bother about worrying about me. After all, no one is requiring you to do that."

Bou-san seemed to want to snap back upon hearing Naru's infuriating reply, but held back. "It's up to me to worry about whoever I want."

"Then I guess what I will do after this case is also up to me, Bou-san."

I finally reached bursting point when he said that, so I put in, "Why are you like that, Naru? All of us are concerned about you!"

Naru turned his intense blue eyes upon me. I didn't flinch as I stared back. "Well, that's what I call 'nosing into other people's business', Mai."

"Nosing? _Naru_!" I was quite taken aback at his answer, but plowed through anyway. "Are you really so insensitive? Why can't you just accept everyone's good intentions sincerely? Moreover, why do you think are they all here? It's because we were worried about your condition! If it is not a concern, then what? You're an even bigger idiot than me if you can't accept these good intentions of ours!"

"I had never asked for any of those so-called 'good intentions'." Naru was staring at me so hard that it almost hurt me physically.

I opened my mouth for a rebuttal, and tears began pooling in the corners of my eyes from sheer anger as I said, "How about, at least, you show us some gratitude for at least thinking of you?"

Naru scoffed. "Seriously, Mai… what is it that makes you that angry? Do you really have to be so attached to everyone else?"

I bristled. "I don't have to have a reason to get attached to anyone, Naru! But your cold, high-and-mighty attitude—that aura that tells us to stay away from you because you do not want our attention? It irritates me, and you should know it!"

Bou-san, however, quickly interfered before Naru could deliver a stinging reply. "Alright, alright… I do understand. So, calm down… Naru certainly has his own reasons."

"But, _Bou-san_—!"

"The point is that I'm here and I have invited you all to clear something that was on my mind for quite a while. And will you finally understand once all of this is cleared, Mai?" Bou-san fixed me with a stare before turning back to Naru. "Ne, Naru, wouldn't you care to explain?"

"I don't think it's important."

Bou-san sighed again. "Still so stubborn… If that is so, if I had something to ask you, would you answer?"

Naru frowned. "Frankly, Bou-san, this matter is a waste of my time."

Bou-san chuckled. "Naru-chan, you have to realize that sometimes, something like wasting time is also necessary."

Naru stood up sinuously, the black folder in his hands promptly opened as he started to go, but Bou-san immediately blocked his way.

"Get out of my way, Bou-san."

"Ne, Naru-chan, it's not good if your injury gets worse, hm? And I assure you that I'm not going to hesitate to use force if it's necessary to keep you here. So, what? Would you stay here in peace for a little while and clear my query?"

Naru hesitated, then said, "—Fine. I'll give you five minutes."

"How stingy. What about thirty minutes?" Bou-san certainly looked as if he was enjoying this. The rest of SPR, which included me, all looked mightily confused.

"Fifteen minutes."

Bou-san didn't look as if he was too satisfied, but he nodded and ushered Naru to his former seat. "Alright, fifteen if you must."

Ayako suddenly spoke and voiced our concern. "W-wait a minute! I still don't understand what you guys are doing!"

Bou-san smiled mysteriously. "We are trying to clarify something that'll confirm everything that I've gathered. Well then, let's straight to the point, Naru-chan… The first query that came across my mind is about… his name."

My eyes rounded with surprise when a faint shadow of a smile manifested itself upon Naru's lips. He looked as if he was strangely satisfied with the statement that Bou-san presented him with.

So I felt obligated to speak up. "Er, what's with his name, Bou-san?"

Bou-san looked at me exasperatedly. "Shibuya Psychic Research is located in downtown _Shibuya_, Mai. And its president has 'Shibuya' as a surname too. Don't you find this fact strange?"

Ayako frowned thoughtfully at Bou-san. "Well, isn't it just a coincidence or something?"

"It might be," Bou-san agreed. "There are three possibilities. Firstly, maybe it is just that, a pure coincidence. Secondly, maybe the loation was purposely chosen for the office because of the prestige associated with the name. And lastly… maybe the names of either the office or the president are pseudonyms."

"Pseudonyms?"

Bou-san looked as if he had just won the jackpot at the lottery. "Yes. If the concerned is anyone else, that might be. But, it is not something that our Naru here would do. So, the most possible scenario would be the first. But there is something which still doesn't add up to our deductions so far."

I looked confusedly at Bou-san. "Wh-what is that?"

"Do you remember what Naru said to you the first time we all met at your school, Mai?"

* * *

><p><em>"Ne, Naru-chan. What do you want me to do today?"<em>

_"What did you call me…?"_

_"Uh…"_

_"Did you just call me Naru?" _His face had registered pure shock at the time. I hadn't missed it, but I took it as a reaction for something that was entirely else.

_"S-sorry, I—"_

_"Where did you hear that name?"_

_"Oh, so 'Naru' must be your real nickname! Just as I thought… Other people must've had the same idea! Well, Naru-chan… short for narcissist."_

Naru had looked highly confused at my reasoning for calling him 'Naru' back then, but he had continued to speak._ "Hm… Well, there has been no reaction from the spirits, so there's not much that we can do at the moment. However, Mai's senpai—"_

_"You just called me by my first name!" _

Naru had this smug look at the time._ "In case you've forgotten, you just did call me by my first name too, didn't you?"_

* * *

><p>I was quite shocked when I did remember. "Well, yeah…"<p>

Bou-san smirked. "I remembered it because it was just weird. Notice: Mai just called him with a nickname which was derived from the word narcissist. In Japanese, _naru_shisuto. So, there's no way in hell that it can be a first name for somebody, right? And the other strange thing is that why Lin-san also calls him like that. Isn't that also quite weird?"

"Why is it weird?" I asked curiously.

"Mai, you're so naive." Bou-san sighed. "Is Lin-san the type of person who normally calls his boss '_Naru, the narcissist_'? Even if the nickname 'Naru' came from the word narcissist, Lin-san is certainly not the type who will call his boss as simply 'Naru'. Am I mistaken?"

"Well… if we think about it…" I was astounded at the concreteness of Bou-san's argument.

Even Ayako looked surprised. "You might've hit it right this time…"

Bou-san smiled at Ayako. "Well, we shall only know the truth by asking the concerned one directly. Then, this raises another question: What if 'Shibuya Kazuya' is his pseudonym, and 'Naru' is his real name?"

"…'Naru' is his real name?" I glanced at Naru as I was saying this, and to my surprise, he was smirking.

"You're starting to understand, do you?" Naru said, the smirk widening when the rest all turned around to look at him.

Bou-san rubbed his hands together eagerly. "Fufu~ Starting from here onwards will be more interesting." He pointed his right index finger at Naru. "If your real name is 'Naru', it won't be as strange if Lin-san also calls you by it. Moreover, while going over it, I'm trying to remember something, and the fact is I had never found of any evidence that will tell us that the real name of the person sitting before us is really 'Shibuya Kazuya'."

"Then… what—?" I looked beseechingly at Naru for an answer, but Naru just smiled.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:**

Yeah, got the volume 12 scene translations from vipassani's blog. Thank you, vipassani! And I do not own the translations or volume 12 itself. I just added the translations to add a solid background to the actual fan fiction story because I want to establish the fact that Mai now knew who Naru really is. Please don't, um, flame me for that. After the confirmation of the truth of Naru's real identity, the rest of the chapters will be my own work.

_Quote at the beginning of the chapter is from Ghost Hunt volume 10. Flashback is from Ghost Hunt volume 1. _

___Ghost Hunt volumes 1, 10 and 12 are by Inada Shiho and Ono Fuyumi. All rights reserved by that brilliant pair. ___

* * *

><p><strong>Please do review!<strong>


	2. Pseudonyms

**_A Tale of Two Brothers_**

* * *

><p><strong>IMPORTANT<strong>! Read this! DL, DR!

**Pairings**: NaruMai. My one and only Ghost Hunt OTP.

**Genres**: Supernatural & Romance

**Disclaimer**: I will never own Ghost Hunt, 'kay? All rights reserved by all concerned parties.

* * *

><p><em><strong>File 2:<strong>_  
><em>Pseudonyms<em>

* * *

><p><em>April, Thursday morning.<em>

I was thunderstruck. We were all thunderstruck, actually.

I was the first to stutter out loud.

"B-but…"

Bou-san sighed. "Well, I have noticed something peculiar about his name on two occasions: Namely, the two incidents wherein we had to rush Naru in the hospital. The most recent hospital incident was when he fainted because of using his PK. The first, however, was—"

"In the Yuasa High case," I said, openmouthed. "But what of it?"

"Did you remember that there's no name written on the board beside the door to Naru's room then? Normally, the name boards in hospitals are filled up with the patient's name, which will be written under the name of the patient's insurance card. But why was there no name written on the board?" Bou-san's eyes were glittering dryly. "And notice that this time around, his name had been obviously written as '_Shibuya Kazuya_'."

Eh, that meant that Naru does not have insurance, right…? Which we've already known…

Bou-san continued, "Then, he always rejects us whenever we wanted to drop by to visit him the first time. But this time, he wasn't bothered even when we had visited him everyday." He looked at Naru, who had been watching us silently all the time we've been conversing about him with a contemplative look in his angelic face. "I didn't really know about this recent hospital incident, but you told us that you didn't have insurance, and that's why you had to pay the whole cost of the hospital bill."

John gasped. "Then that would have meant that when he had been rushed to the hospital in the Yuasa case, he gave the doctor his real name? And that's why the name board beside his door had been empty?"

Bou-san nodded approvingly. "It's a huge probability."

Ayako scowled. "But if it's so, the doctor and nurse should've known his real name! So, that's why we were not allowed to visit? So that his identity wouldn't get revealed?"

"That is still a guess. But I still think that the closest possibility is that the name 'Shibuya Kazuya' is just a pseudonym."

I had a sudden thought. "Wait! Wasn't it that one? There was a case when he said his name was 'Narumi'. Maybe that's his real name, since once you shorten it, it'll become 'Naru'!"

"Mai, you're quite forgetting one of our most vital clues. Didn't we agree already that 'Naru' is his first name, not his nickname?"

_Whoops_. "Er, right. I forgot. Hehe."

Bou-san stared at Naru. "I've presented my evidences already. So would you at least tell us if 'Shibuya Kazuya' is your true name or otherwise?"

Naru smiled. "Oh, you've already presented your observations so nicely, Bou-san. I don't feel as if I even have to answer."

Bou-san sighed. "Staying silent, are we? Well, let's proceed to the next question then."

I paled considerably. "Eh! There's still more?"

Bou-san grinned. "There's still more, you ask? Of course there is! Since I've become suspicious by my theory of Shibuya-Kazuya-as-a-pseudonym, I've been interested about Naru's private life which had been so full of mystery. I guess for that reason he hadn't wanted to tell anyone his address and phone number. For instance, do you have it, Mai?"

I shook my head dutifully. "Nope. I have asked him a lot of times, but he doesn't give a hoot."

Ayako smirked. "A lot of times already? You do really love it when a challenge presents itself to you, don't you?"

I smiled sheepishly. "Well, sorta."

"Well, that's it right?" Bou-san said triumphantly. "Obviously, Naru wants to hide from us the location of his home. The question is, why does he have to keep the location of his house undisclosed?"

I scratched my head. "Why? Um… maybe because he worries about fangirls?"

Bou-san gave me a "Mai-don't-_start_" kind of amused look. "What kind of answer is that, Mai? What I meant is, what's the purpose of hiding the location of his house when he discloses the location of the office to anybody anyways? That's brought me to the thought that, once we find out where Naru truly lives, it's possible that the rest of the truth about him will be uncovered."

"…What do you mean, Bou-san?" I was feeling a bit afraid.

"What I meant is that the riddle of Naru's real identity will be revealed."

"The real… Naru?" I was quite confused. "But—"

"Apparently he wants to hide his identity. So, once the place where he lives has been made known, there's a possibility that his person will be automatically revealed. That's why, his address should stay hidden. Am I wrong, eh, Naru-chan?"

Naru stared at him blankly, like a Noh mask without expression. "Do you really want me to answer that question?"

He's… even more terrifying now than when he gets angry…

And "the _real_Naru"? What does it mean? Isn't the Naru that was looking blankly at us with mystery in his dark blue eyes still the Naru that I'd always gotten into spats with? And why did I feel this uncomfortable? It felt as if once something about it gets revealed, something…

_Something bad might happen_…

"And try this, Mai…" Bou-san was still proceeding with this unnerving talk.

"Wh-what?"

"If 'Shibuya' is a pseudonym, he would then get troubled if the place where he lives will become exposed, because his real surname will be written on the gate post. So, I do understand why he was trying to hide it. But then, why would he hide his phone number too?"

"Er—"

Ayako clapped her hands together once. "Ah! Isn't it because the address will be found from the telephone book?"

"If that's so, we can only find it if the number is listed. What if it's not? And what if Naru doesn't have his own phone? How about if he just uses the public phone?"

Ayako frowned. "Are you perhaps hinting that you think he lives in a boarding house?"

I grimaced. "For some reason, I just can't imagine Naru living in such a place…"

Bou-san let out a breath. "Well, wherever it is, for someone who tries to keep a low profile, he'd find himself in a sticky situation once one of us calls and the phone is coincidentally picked up by someone, either one of his family or the boarding house owner who didn't know a thing about his situation."

"Because there will be a chance of that someone slipping up about his true identity?"

Bou-san nodded. "Yup. Even if he gets to convince people to hold their tongues about him to anyone else, he hasn't done that. So I can see that he couldn't tell his phone number because his situation, for some reason, does not allow him to."

Ayako put in, "But then, why doesn't he tell us his mobile number instead? It would be normal rather than keep it hidden. And Naru does have his own income, so it's not impossible for him to have one."

I thought for a bit. "Maybe his family or the boarding house owner didn't allow him to have one?"

"Look, Mai," Bou-san sighed. "It would be less probable that his family would be against his buying a mobile, you know."

"Er, why?"

"Naru is still underage. Everything he was doing must have been with his family's permission. Moreover, at the office he frequently shows up. That means, at least his family tolerated his activities or maybe even took part in cooperating with what Naru is doing. So, they must have agreed if Naru had decided to have a mobile phone."

"So, is it probable that a boarding house owner was really the one not allowing him?"

"Maybe, but my guess is a bit different. Well, let's say that there's no family opposed, but he still can't get a mobile phone. In other words, even though he has been granted personal freedom, there's still a limit to it. Maybe he met with difficulties when it came to dealing with the boarding house owner or whichever place is that in which he currently resides."

"Eh? Is there some kind of place like that?" I said, surprised.

Bou-san nodded. "He's not staying at a house, nor a boarding house, nor an apartment, which means, could his place of stay be at a hotel? If it's a hotel, it would be very risky to give someone a phone number since the one who will answer the phone first is the receptionist. And apparently, he'll experience a difficulty to ask the receptionist to cooperate. Well, he could've still had the mobile phone instead, but the point is, it's not really necessary, it would be more practical to hide it."

"But, why does it have to be a hotel? If it's to commute to the office, shouldn't it have to be from home— Eh? In that case…"

"Right. Naru is not from Tokyo. But his office is in Tokyo because of whatever convenience he might have associated with the place in accordance to his work. He has to go to Tokyo for work, so he stays in the hotel. But he doesn't expect that his work will take quite a while. That's why he didn't find a fixed place to stay. Am I in any way mistaken, Naru-chan?"

Naru just crossed his arms and stared at Bou-san neutrally. "I don't feel like answering."

Ayako interrupted. "Wait a minute! Why does he have to keep staying in a hotel and settle in Tokyo? Isn't it particularly better to stay in a house since Mai told us the last time that he always takes tours around Japan? It would be more reasonable and save him more expenses since he can just travel directly from home, right?"

"Indeed," Bou-san agreed. "But take this as an example. Let's say that Naru wants to go to Hokkaido next. But how about if the distance of his house going to Hokkaido is much farther than the distance between Tokyo to Hokkaido?"

Ayako mused, "How could it be? It's not like he lives somewhere abroad, though…"

I snapped out of it. "—Abroad?"

Bou-san gave me a satisfied smile. "That's it! There are lots of evidences which will further support this theory. For example, he has admitted to us that he's not good in reading kanji. His notes from investigations or his data are mostly written in romaji. We have seen him read Japanese, indeed, but I had never noticed him write in Japanese characters before."

I just remembered something. "Hey. When we first met, I asked him about his year level. He answered that he's seventeen years old this year instead. I had thought that his answer was weird at the time, but I hadn't really pursued the topic."

"That's right, isn't it? If this is somewhat linked to the Shibuya-Kazuya-as-a-pseudonym theory, what has to be in place is already in the right place. And for that—" Bou-san let out a satisfied hiss. "_He's not Japanese_."

I gulped. "B-but he…"

Bou-san shook his head. "Even if he does look like a Japanese and even if he speaks Japanese perfectly and without any sign of a foreign accent, those characteristics don't rule him out as one. Lin-san is the best example. If I take that idea, I can understand why he doesn't go to school. Because if he stays in the hotel, he can't process his school papers."

"So… maybe he's a Chinese?" I suggested tentatively. "Same as Lin-san?"

"At first I had thought so too," Bou-san conceded, "But still I can hardly understand the mystery behind the name 'Naru'. It would be better to just ask the concerned one. Where were you born, Naru?"

Naru just kept his mouth shut, and his eyes blank.

"You're insisting to remain silent, aren't you?" Bou-san asked with evident impatience. "Alright, I'll not hesitate to drive you to a wall. Next!"

Next? There's more? Oh, great…

"All right!" Bou-san exclaimed. "One more thing that makes me wonder is that, how did you manage yourself to get a load of the equipment that we normally use for investigation? In your guys' opinion, how much should be the total cost of those equipment?"

My head ached at just the statement of the question. "Well, I don't…"

Bou-san crossed his arms. "It could cost up to hundreds of millions. Even if Naru is the only son of an extremely rich family, that's not an amount that he can get since he's just seventeen years old." He glanced meaningfully at Naru. "If I ask you about this, will you answer?"

Naru smiled slightly, making my heart flutter. "Oh, but Bou-san, I wouldn't like to take your chance to show off your intellectual powers, which is rather rare in occurrence, now that I stop to think about it. And I must say, all of those inferences of yours are interesting."

Bou-san looked exasperated at Naru's persisting silence, but plowed on. "Good reason. If that's so, one more time, is this office really yours? Is there any building manager or bank that would willingly accept an office whose owner is not even old enough? Plus, there's also the matter concerning Mai herself."

I was dumbfounded. "Me?"

Bou-san nodded. "Why was Mai, who has the position of administrative assistant, not allowed to answer the telephone or sort the mail? Shouldn't that have to be one of her jobs around the office? And why was the mail to be given to Mai only if they had been sorted out by Lin-san already? Right, Mai? Haven't you told us the very day that Yoshimi Akifumi went to our office that you're not allowed to take care of phone messages and postals?"

I gave a weak nod. "Y-yes…"

"And the question is, why? A probability is that for written mail, there is a possibility that they contain information which is not purposely for other people to know, such as the receiver's name or the shipper's address. That's why they are kept hidden."

Ayako nodded furiously. "That's right! If 'Shibuya Kazuya' is a pseudonym, and if they had written his real name on the mail, it would have been revealed to Mai right away."

Bou-san smirked. "You think so too, don't you?"

Ayako then looked puzzled. "But this is an office, right? Isn't it normal for posts to be addressed to 'Shibuya Phychic Research', not to Naru's real name instead? So, it's not necessary to hide it, isn't it?"

Bou-san smiled. "From right there I got a new question. What if the receiver's name is actually different?"

"Eh?" I was confused. Yet. _Again_.

Bou-san pointed at me. "What if the name of 'Shibuya Psychic Research' office is also a pseudonym? A codename?"

"Ne, Bou-san," I hurriedly said. "But… if the office name is actually different, won't the delivered mail not arrive to this office?"

"Well, it not really has to be like that, Mai. There's the first name, 'Shibuya Psychic Research', and there's its shortened form, 'SPR', too. But, which one is the official one?"

"Ah… I don't get it…" John smiled apologetically. I sighed sympathetically.

Bou-san smirked. "Think about it. To establish an office, there must be a registration report filled out. And which name is used for the registration? The posts eventually will be delivered to whatever the name will be.

"To be sure, you just have to put the name on the post office box. That's why, if this office was registered under its true name, let's say for example that its real name was 'Tanaka Psychic Research', there's no way to put the fake name 'Shibuya Psychic Research' on the door.

"However, if it was registered as 'Shibuya Psychic Research', it won't be a problem even if you put 'SPR' on the door. The same goes for the contrary, as long as next to it was written 'Shibuya Psychic Research'." Bou-san looked at Naru with a smug smile. "So, which name is the official one? Shibuya Psychic Research? Or was it… SPR?"

Naru just kept mum, his blue eyes bemused as he listened to Bou-san.

"Yet, you still don't want to answer?" Bou-san grinned. "Ah, your signature stubbornness is really something…"

I was at a loss for words, so I settled upon, "I—I really don't understand."

"Tch, alright… I'll skip to my conclusion. This is the SPR-is-the official-name-of-this-office theory. 'Shibuya Psychic Research' is just a codename, so there's no problem for Naru to use it. So, it's not a big deal to just use 'SPR' as an acronym. Therefore, renaming the office as 'Shibuya Psychic Research', which was located in Shibuya, has got nothing to do with coincidence. So, how is it, Naru-chan?"

Naru's lips were holding the faintest shadow of a smirk. "If that's true, I should think that there's absolutely no need to hide it from Mai, even if the real name is 'SPR'."

"Well, let's connect all of our clues so far! We have SPR, which could afford very expensive and sophisticated equipment, together with Naru, who is clearly not a Japanese. What, then, is the true name of this office?"

John and Ayako both exclaimed, "Ah!"

Masako had put the edge of her kimono sleeve over her mouth in shock. "It can't be…!"

Bou-san laughed. "Exactly! SPR stands for the Society for Psychical Research, an—no, the influential group of spirit researchers that has a long history already, and located in the United Kingdom. 'Shibuya Psychic Research' is a fictitious name which was used to avoid the attention of the media. Isn't the official Japanese branch of SPR the 'Spirits Researchers Organization'? Supposing that Naru is one of the researchers for the Spirits Researchers Organization, his ability to acquire all those equipment would be made clear. The Spirits Researchers Organization does not belong to Naru himself. Then, this assumption will lead to another question, because if Naru is really a member of 'Spirits Researchers Organization', it would be understandable if he used a pseudonym and hid his true identity."

We all exclaimed, "Eh? Wh-wh-why? Why?"

"Fufufu… When Mai called him 'Naru', he accidentally let out that it was his first name. Supposing the assumption until now, that he's not a Japanese is true, it will explain one more thing…"

"What is that?" I asked earnestly.

Bou-san put up two fingers and ticked them off. "The clues are 'SPR' and the name 'Naru'."

Ah, Bou-san! That's too confusing!

"There is no way that those two can be clues!"

Bou-san sighed. "As was expected of you, Mai." I was about to deliver a scathing reply about his slight on my intelligence when he spoke again, and I fell silent. "Okay, pertaining to the second clue. For example, in English-speaking countries, Tom could be a real first name, or just a nickname. Do you know from what name was it derived?"

"Why's it suddenly become an English test?"

"Well, just answer it, Mai."

"Er—Th-Thomas?"

"Very good. How about Mike?"

"Michael…"

"Tony?"

"Uh… _Ah_! Anthony!"

Bou-san smiled. "Good! The next one is a little harder. Dick?"

"Huh…?"

Ayako swiftly answered the question for me. "Richard."

"Okay." Bou-san gestured to the silent Naru watching us with a smile. "So, how about Naru?"

"Huh?" I was totally frazzled.

Bou-san sighed. "We've already established that SPR may refer to the Society for Psychical Research, which is located in the United Kingdom. With this in mind, let's assume that Naru is British. In other countries, English-speaking people customarily call each other by their first name. Well, although there are exceptions who didn't want to be called by their first name. Nah, how about if he was called by his nickname by someone who had a close relationship with him?

"So, this is it… Naru was suddenly called by a nickname which was originally used by a person who is very close to him, and now, this nickname was being used by all of us, which he had just known. So to clear up his confusion, he said that you, Mai, had called him by his first name."

I frowned. "If that's so, where was 'Naru' derived from…?"

"Explain it, John," Bou-san nodded at our Australian priest, who looked rather nervous at the question. "You're a native English speaker, anyways."

John hesitated, then began slowly, "Naru could be the heavily accented Japanese form of 'Noll'… which is a medieval diminutive for the name… 'Oliver'."

"Oliver?" I glanced at Naru. He couldn't help but show a glimmer of amusement at John's statement.

Bou-san looked at Naru carefully. "Then, he is a person named Oliver who works for SPR, who possesses an impressive amount of PK potential, and who, for some reason, finds it necessary to hide his true identity. Given all these clues, then, Mai"—he stared at me long and hard—"can you tell us who he really is?"

I was thinking hard about all of the clues, when I gasped involuntarily. I had realized that all of the clues can only point to one very obvious yet obscure person—that elusive, brilliant psyresearcher that has garnered a wholehearted respect from the field of parapsychology…

"Davis-hakase?"

* * *

><p><em>April, Thursday morning.<em>

Everyone is so silent that I decided to break it.

"—Is that true?" I stared imploringly at Naru, but the only response that he gave was to stand up from his seat.

"I don't feel like answering. Your fifteen minutes are over anyways."

Then Naru left the silence of the main office for the solitude of the president's office, leaving us in a state of utter astonishment and shock.

Bou-san exhaled loudly. "He still wants to act stupid, hm? Damn it…"

"Bou-sa—" I was about to say, when suddenly, the door to the main office flew open with a resonating bang. Startled faces turned toward the door and I saw that the impromptu trespasser was Mori Madoka-san, who was dressed in a pencil skirt and casual gray sweater which accentuated her red hair and angry expression. I half-expected Naru to burst out of his office and start saying something about the noise, but thankfully, there was no apparent reaction from the office except for utter silence. Maybe he's just choosing to ignore it for the sake of letting us organize our thoughts.

I slowly rose from my seat, my brain fried from all the sudden happenings. "Mori-san!"

"Where's _Eugene_?" she exclaimed, and then clapped a hand over her mouth in surprise after walking into a room that was apparently not holding the person that she was searching for. "Whoops, don't tell me he's not even here yet…"

"Who?" Bou-san frowned, and I just remembered something horribly important.

"Eugene Davis?" I asked slowly, horrified. "He's scheduled for an appointment around eight…"

"It's exactly eight o' clock," Mori-san grumbled under her breath, and Lin-san flew out from his office, a worried look on his own face.

"Eugene is here? In Tokyo?"

"Why, yes," Mori-san said with a surprised look. "I thought he called the office…"

"_He didn't!_"

"Actually, he _did_," I said in a small voice, interrupting Mori-san as she opened her mouth to say something angry. "I forgot to, um…"

"I thought I told you to never pick up the phone," a cold voice suddenly said behind me, and I turned to look directly into Naru's darkly colored eyes.

"Sorry for disobeying you then, _hakase_," I snapped with a sarcastic tone, glaring back. We glowered at each other silently before Mori-san nervously broke in.

"I should call him then," she muttered, whipping out a phone from her purse and tapping the keys with lightning speed.

"Wait, who's this Eugene guy anyway?" Bou-san asked.

"My brother," Naru said shortly. "We have the same surname if you haven't noticed yet. Especially after that little lecture about my real identity, well…" He crossed his arms. "There's no need to explain."

"Your brother…?" Bou-san looked as if he had just realized something. "If I'm not mistaken, I've also heard that Oliver Davis was supposed to have a brother. One of the greatest mediums in the field, from what I've heard…"

I was openmouthed. "You actually have a sibling?"

"It wasn't as if I was intentionally hiding it, though," Naru said with an absentminded frown, and I saw that he was staring hard at Mori-san who was talking into her phone, as if willing himself to hear what was being said on the other end of the line.

Lin-san scowled. "Once the professor hears of this…"

Naru glanced at Lin-san wearily. "I know, Lin. You don't need to remind me." Then, as if half to himself, he muttered, "I dunno how Luella'll take this, though…"

Just then, Mori-san let out a surprised squeak as the door of the office banged open again, this time letting in a rather disheveled young man with windswept black hair and startlingly blue eyes the shade of velvety midnight. He instinctively looked at Naru, and my boss easily caught the glance, almost as if he was acting on psychic instincts.

"_Noll!_" he exclaimed in impeccable American-accented English, a shockingly broad grin spreading across his face and revealing his perfectly straight teeth. "_I missed you!_"

At that moment, I felt my heart sink for a single stupid, heart-quaking reason.

Naru didn't tell us that they were twins. _For crying out loud. _

* * *

><p><strong>AN:**

Again, got the volume 12 scene translations from vipassani's blog. Thank you, vipassani! I do not own the translations or volume 12 itself. And next chapter is where we actually start with the whole non-canon thing.

_Ghost Hunt volume 12 is by the talented Inada Shiho and the amazing Ono Fuyumi. All rights reserved by that brilliant pair. _

* * *

><p><strong>Please do review!<strong>


	3. Doppelgängers

_**A Tale of Two Brothers**_

* * *

><p><strong>IMPORTANT<strong>! Read this! DL, DR!

**Pairings**: NaruMai. My one and only Ghost Hunt OTP.

**Genres**: Supernatural & Romance

**Disclaimer**: I will never own Ghost Hunt, 'kay? All rights reserved by all concerned parties.

* * *

><p><strong><em>File 3:<em>**  
><em>Doppelgängers<em>

* * *

><p>"<em>I missed you…<em>" Eugene Davis was saying, his voice every bit as melodious as Naru's. I wondered why I didn't notice that when he telephoned the office that Monday. Then I answered my own question by reasoning out that somehow, telephones are not really the most perfect conductors of the human voice. "_Noll._"

"What are you doing here." Naru's eyes are as hard as steel as he spoke in good Japanese. It wasn't anything like a question. More like a demand.

"I don't even need a reason to come see you, you know," Eugene Davis said with a slight pout that made all of the three females in the room blush. Ah! His Japanese is also good. "You're still such an insufferably cold idiot…"

I slumped. If he already thought that the impossibly smart Naru was an idiot, what would he think of us? Let me refrain from answering yonder question.

"But you know what?" Eugene walked over and engaged his rigid yet still unyielding twin into an embrace. "You're an idiot, and I still want to get stuck with you. So I guess that makes the two of us stupider than necessary."

Naru smirked at Eugene's shoulder. "You aren't supposed to let me join the club, you know. I'm _better_ than that." I glared at him. Such a narcissist to the end…

"Very charmingly said," the other replied dryly, letting go of him.

"Why, _thank_ you," Naru said sarcastically. I was wondering if sarcasm runs in their family, when I suddenly noticed that Eugene Davis was looking at me with amusement, his dark blue eyes looking like warm tropical seawater in contrast to Naru's icy azure ones.

Bou-san coughed. "Er, excuse me, but—"

"_Eugene Davis!_" Mori-san, who we had forgotten for a while since Eugene Davis's entry had eclipsed her own enigmatic arrival, had suddenly screeched, which made us all cringe. I noticed with amusement that Eugene had swiftly stepped behind his twin, his soulful eyes wary. "What was this all about, acting without your superiors' permission? You could've gotten yourself lost here!"

"But I didn't!" Eugene said earnestly, his face so identical yet so different from Naru's because of that natural smile that I had to pinch my arm instinctively to see if I wasn't dreaming one of those dreams again. It hurt a lot, so I immediately concluded that I was, unfortunately, awake.

"Then explain yourself!"

Eugene Davis put a hand on his forehead wearily. "All right, it was my fault, but I called Luella and Martin right after I got out of the plane, and I also called Professor Jansen on the way to Shibuya. So I'm, uh, solved! I guess."

"That does not cut it, young man!" Mori-san put her hands on her hips and assumed a stern look, which I recognized as the look that she had only used on Naru when she had first introduced herself to us. How… _nostalgic_. "Really, you two! You keep on going your own ways as if nobody's going to get worried over you!"

"_Ah! So not true!_" Eugene burst out in English. I think he forgets everything whenever he gets agitated, huh? "I meant," he continued in Japanese, his brow slightly crinkling in thought, "that we're not. It's just—"

The door opened again for the third time, and a slim woman of about twenty-five years of age stepped in through the doorway of the office of Shibuya Psy—I meant, SPR. She was pretty and very tasteful in her choice of clothing, her soft features accentuated with the color of her clothes. Her long dark hair was pulled back in a neat ponytail and secured with a silver clasp.

"Um… Is this a bad time?" she asked softly, apparently referring to Mori-san, who was still in her intimidating posture. With a squeak, Mori-san had Eugene pull her away to a corner and bade her to stay silent. Meekly, since the newcomer was apparently a client, she obeyed.

"May I speak with the director?" the client added, a faint look of amusement gliding over her youthful eyes before fading out again and giving way to her natural seriousness.

"Yes. I am Shibuya Kazuya, the president of SPR. What can we help you with?" Naru immediately put in, smoothly occupying his customary seat. I was accustomed to see clients look a bit surprised whenever seventeen-year-old Naru introduces himself as "the president of SPR", but to my wonder, the client didn't even look twice as I offered her a seat on one of the two sofas around the coffee table. When I served her some tea, she smiled her thanks at me quite graciously and sipped a little before speaking.

"Well, I have a case that I would like you to look into," she began self-consciously, perhaps abashed at the pairs of eyes looking at her around the table. "First, here is my name card." She produced a card holder from her purse and slipped out one of the cards inside before sliding it on the table towards Naru. He examined it minutely, before slipping it inside the black notebook that he was holding.

"So you are…"

"My name is Satō Asami," our client said. "I teach piano music in Maebashi as a profession, but I'm also a volunteer worker in an orphanage in Takasaki."

"I see. From Gunma Prefecture, then? So, Satō-san, what seems to be the problem, to cause you to go to Tokyo just to get our help?" Naru asked with a calm, clinical tone, a pen immediately slid out of the breast pocket of his coat and its tip pressed against paper as he prepared to take down anything of interest.

"Well, actually I've been sent here by the administration of the orphanage in which I am working part-time. There has been many disturbing events there, and it would surely give the children and I some peace of mind if all of those are fully explained and expelled from the place."

"Disturbing events? Such as?"

"Well, five boys had already reported sightings of a ghost in the first-floor boys' lavatory," Asami-san said, looking as if she was expecting us to laugh at her story. "There has also been sightings of different ghosts, one each in the playroom and also in the dinner hall. The maintenance staff has also told me that an eerie piano music would play whenever the grandfather clock in the library strikes four in the early morning. I'm sure that all of them are pretty shaken-up by now because of the happenings, but it's only now that they've decided to take the case to a specialist. Clearly, these events are not to be taken lightly since just last week, a boy has been possessed by what the children had claimed was the lavatory ghost. I was there when it happened…" Her voice cracked, and she took another sip of her tea to divert herself.

"I see," Naru said yet again, his pen moving in rapid strokes over the paper and producing notes in neatly written characters.

"Oh, so you're accepting the case already, Naru-chan?" Bou-san said with a grin.

"Well, I'm still undecided," Naru frowned. "Are there any more prices of information that you may have overlooked, Satō-san?"

"Er, I don't think that it's terribly necessary to add this, but at the orphanage, there was also a pair of twin kids who were claiming to have communicated with the ghost in the playroom, but I'm not sure if they are to be believed or if they are just looking for ways to steal some of the attention while these phenomena are going on," Asami-san said with a worried tone. "But if you can, I would like you to also examine them. If their stories are true, they might have information that we do not have. You won't lose anything by asking them. They are both very bright, and are very mature for their ages…"

Naru glanced up at Asami-san, a faint glimmer of surprise in his eyes that was quickly snuffed out. "Very well, this certainly catches my attention. I think I shall accept your case. When can we get started, Satō-san?"

"Ah, maybe this Saturday would be preferable," Asami-san said with a grateful look that would have smitten any man's heart except for Naru's. She hastily took out a notebook and scribbled something on it before tearing out the page and handing it to Naru. "I've written the address of the orphanage, and also their telephone numbers just in case." She rose from the seat. "I have to go. Thank you for your time, Shibuya-san."

She finally went out, the door closing behind her with a gentle shutting sound.

"Hum," Eugene remarked from the corner with a frown. "Certainly, this case poses some unusual elements right from the start."

"The client herself is an interesting study, don't you think?" Mori-san said, looking thoughtful.

"Yup," Bou-san agreed solemnly.

Naru stood up and put the pen back in his pocket.

"Well, that's finally over." He glanced at Eugene and pointed at the door that led to his private office. "However, Gene, you and I are going to talk. You have committed a grave violation of company policies by acting without your immediate superior's permission. Madoka, you too. Come."

Gene. Naru called him Gene.

* * *

><p><em>April, Saturday afternoon. 12:11 pm.<em>

We had decided to go to Gunma after lunch, since Ayako had insisted upon coming over with us in the car, and and her Saturday shift at the hospital ends at one. So when I arrived at the office after a filling lunch that consisted of a lot of fish and various pickled vegetables, I hadn't expected myself to see someone already there.

However, the sight that greeted me was that of Eugene Davis curled up like a black cat on the sofa, his shoulders gently rising and falling as he slept soundly. I was so surprised at the sight that I accidentally knocked the coat stand over when I went over to hang my bag. The crash immediately woke him up, his body involuntarily jolting upright at the noise. My face was screwed up with fear as I waited for Naru to come flying out of the office and tell me off with his sharp tongue, but another surprise—no one did.

Eugene was blinking at me, his blue eyes still disoriented with dreams as he shrugged off the black coat that was draped over him and flinging it carelessly over the back of the seat.

"Oh…?" He frowned at the coat that he hadn't realized he had taken off, and looked at me. His head was cocked to the side like a curious pigeon. "This isn't mine…"

"Maybe Naru put it over you?" I suggested awkwardly, going to the kitchenette to prepare some—

"Um, can we please have some… _coffee_?" he said with a really hopeful look that made me suddenly want to hide in the cupboard and blush like crazy. "I—I—am still… so…" He hid a yawn by burying his face in the black coat, making me smile and immediately regretting it when he looked up with a mischievous grin and saw me.

"Of course. Luckily, Bou-san also drinks coffee, so I keep some here," I said casually, turning away in the pretext of pulling out some from the cupboard. I set to boil some water in the well-used steel kettle while I felt Eugene curiously watching me move about. I do have my own fair share of ESP powers, so maybe that enhanced my natural senses too.

"It smells nice," he said cheerfully as I finally set down a mug of the fresh, steaming black beverage in front of him on the coffee table. He picked it up and seemingly stared into its depths before taking a tentative sip.

"I guess so," I replied.

"Well," he made an impressed face, "_thanks_?"

"Why the question mark?" I said with a sigh, and sat on the couch.

"…I'm not quite sure what to tell you, so it came out like that."

"Huh…"

We looked at each other, then I turned awkwardly away. His cheerful face was just… too startling to look at. Naru hardly makes faces like that. In fact, he hardly does make any kind of face other than the smoothly arrogant one.

"What is Naru really doing here?"

The question had come unbidden from my lips, surprising us both. He was staring at me with rounded eyes, his long eyelashes casting little shadows below his eyes because of the light overhead. Just like Naru's, I guess.

"Well, Oliver went to Japan for a mission given to him by the Society for Psychical Research," he finally answered, a thoughtful look on his face. "His objective was to study about the view of the Japanese on the paranormal. Strategically, he decided to build this office in the very center of downtown Tokyo, amid many hundreds of people. I think he's done a marvelous job of collecting sufficient data."

"Maybe that's why he turns down cases way too often?" I asked, watching him pensively as he took another sip of his coffee.

"I guess so," he agreed, genially.

"But wasn't it strange for SPR to send the famous Oliver Davis to Japan just to gather data for a thesis?" I mused.

Eugene smiled widely. "I'm glad you've seen that one. I do think that he's just suggested this task to use it in the pretext of an investigation to accomplish another, more personal objective, though."

"And what's that…?"

"Has Oliver never told you?" he wondered. "We're British citizens only because we've been adopted by Martin and Luella, who are both British. But we are also technically American because we were born in the States. _And_ at least three-quarters of our blood is Japanese by ethnicity. Our mother was pure Japanese, our father half-and-half. He was half-American, half-Japanese. We inherited his eyes, see?" And he smiled, his dark blue eyes brightening.

"You're really Japanese?"

"At least three-quarters of our blood," he repeated, enthusiastically.

"That's… uh…"

"Unbelievable, right?" He laughed.

"Yeah…" I remarked uneasily. "But what of his true purpose here?"

"Well…" Eugene sighed. "Our parents were killed when we were still kids, so I guess that did motivate him to go back to his motherland and go search for his roots. Right? I mean, it was kind of unsettling to think that you've got no one but your annoying twin to call as your own blood relative…" His voice trailed away self-consciously. "So, um, _yeah_…"

I quickly changed the topic. "Um, about Naru… was he really that, you know… proud? Or was he somewhat different when you were younger?"

"I'm sorry to say that Oliver has always been cynical and proud even before our biological parents' deaths, although their demise did had a lot to do about his present attitude," Gene said with a sigh. "He's now as stubborn as ten mules, yet equally determined to prove himself worthy of the title as the youngest senior parapsychologist in SPR."

"And you…?"

"Ah!" Gene leaned back and smiled at me. "I just snuck off and went here all by myself. That's why my mum and Madoka were so pissed. And Prof Jansen too, although I've taken care of him already by telling him that I've come to check on Oliver and that I'm really, truly sorry to have not gotten his permission but that I'm not going to do it again."

That's a looooooong sentence.

"I can try to get my mum's permission, yeah yeah _yeah_," Gene continued with a sarcastic undertone, "but still, I knew that Luella won't accept that I'm leaving for abroad, not unless I'm already _gone_. 'Cause that's just Luella Davis for you."

I scowled. "You're always one step ahead, aren't you?"

"Not always," he replied, and we shared a smile. I'm afraid I'm getting quite comfortable talking with him. Why not Naru? I've known him for far longer. "Anyways, why do you guys call him Naru? I mean, Noll told me that you didn't even know his true nickname and stuff when you started calling him that…"

"Ah, Naru is short for narcissist," I said with a quick blush, and he laughed. Such a carefree guy!

"Well, when I first heard you guys call him 'Naru-chan', I was like '_what_?' and stuff…" Gene snickered uncontrollably, the hand holding the coffee mug trembling, and I immediately concluded that I shouldn't have made him that coffee. It apparently drives him nuts. _Hyperactive_ nuts.

The door suddenly opened, and Bou-san came marching in with the case of his bass guitar slung on his back.

"Oh, when the cat is away, the mice will play, huh?" He smirked, making me blush deeper.

"_Bou-san_!" I protested indignantly. He ignored me and sat beside Gene, glancing at the coffee mug resting comfortably between Gene's pale hands.

"So you're more of a coffee person?" he asked curiously, nodding at the mug. "I shoulda figured. Twins are usually polar opposites."

"I wouldn't want to call us exact polar opposites, though," Gene said cheerfully, and he would have raised and splashed his mug about if he hadn't remembered the coffee inside. "We mostly agree on many things, and we rarely get into serious fights..."

"I see," Bou-san said with a delighted smirk. I think he's rather refreshed by this mirror image of Naru. "Quite proud of the fact, aren't we?"

"Isn't that a bass?" Gene asked enthusiastically, eyes automatically fastening on the guitar case that Bou-san had set against the wall. "You can play?"

"Well, there's no point in carrying it around if I can't," Bou-san told him jokingly.

"That's what I _said_!" Gene said with a deceptive wide-eyed look, making me laugh.

Moments later, Naru and Lin-san walked in to find the three of us talking quite animatedly. I was finding Gene's weird mannerisms and gestures oddly endearing.

"Oh, Noll!" Gene had looked up at the door in the exact moment that Naru had opened it, almost as if they sensed each other's presence. Naru let out an annoyed sigh, while Lin-san watched us with a queer expression of quiet surprise seldom seen on his face.

"Gene, about the case," Naru began, making us all go on alert. "We will be going with an original complement of six, including me, Lin, Bou-san, Matsuzaki-san, Mai, and you. I have briefed you about their jobs in every case, so I think you can see which of them will be useful to your work in the investigation."

"All right," Gene nodded. "I think the arrangements just fine."

"However, we have to give you a new name first," Naru mused. "It wouldn't look good to use your foreign name in a case."

"I agree, but what?"

Naru stared at Gene for a while as if searching for inspiration, then caught sight of the door, wherein 'Shibuya Psychic Research' was written in inverted script on this side of the wall. His eyes brightened.

"I think I know what."

"Hm?"

"Kazuo. Shibuya Kazuo."

"It sounds nice with 'Kazuya', seeing as you two are twins," Bou-san agreed. "And weirdly fitting too. Didn't you say that Gene is your elder brother?"

"What about it?" I asked.

"Well, 'Kazuo' means 'first-born son'."

And yeah, from that day on, we shall call Eugene Davis by his alias. Shibuya Kazuo, associate director of Shibuya Psychic Research, is now part of the team!

* * *

><p><strong>AN:**

Wah! Good grief!

* * *

><p><strong>Please do review!<strong>


	4. Preliminaries

**_A Tale of Two Brothers_**

* * *

><p><strong>IMPORTANT<strong>! Read this! DL, DR!

**Pairings**: NaruMai. My one and only Ghost Hunt OTP.

**Genres**: Supernatural & Romance

**Disclaimer**: I will never own Ghost Hunt, 'kay? All rights reserved by all concerned parties.

* * *

><p><strong><em>File 4:<em>**  
><em>Preliminaries<em>

* * *

><p>"Ah, Lin-san?" Bou-san looked confusedly at our Chinese curse-breaker, his lips drawn in a small downward turn as he frowned.<p>

"…What is it?"

"I just noticed something rather unusual in our gear today…"

"Yeah, I noticed it too, Bou-san," I put in. "I think I now understand why Naru agreed to let Ayako with us in the van without any of his usual fuss…"

_April, day 1._

We were assembled outside the van, in the parking lot of the orphanage which will be the setting of our present investigation, a two-story orphanage by the name of 'Kami no Tenshi-tachi'. _God's Angels_.

What was Bou-san referring to, you ask? Well, he was referring to the amount of equipment that we'll be lugging to the base. Aside from the two infrared cameras, we'll only be using two of the regular ones. As a result, the monitors are reduced from their usual six to four, and the microphones were also significantly reduced.

"Traveling lighter would be much more convenient," Lin-san said simply.

"Yes, but wouldn't that result in blind spots on obscure locations?"

"We shouldn't need to monitor the whole place."

"But what about the less prominent places? I know that the hauntings took place in the first-floor boys' lavatory, the playroom and the dinner hall," Bou-san said. "but they could be anywhere by now, and Masako's still not around. I think it'd be a disadvantage for us if we don't know where to pinpoint the locations of the spirits!"

"Bou-san, you are perhaps forgetting that my brother is a medium," Naru said patiently behind us, having secured the laptop in its bag and carried it with him.

"Yes, but the abilities of most mediums are too unreliable anyways. For example, Masako usually finds it hard to locate and identify spirits even though she can sense them. Right? We'd be hard put to rely on another person's sight."

"That may be the case, but Gene will still be our main eyes for this case." Naru sent a glare at the inside of the van, where Gene was happily dozing on his seat. "I didn't know what possessed me to accept him into the agency, given his usual lackadaisical attitude towards serious work, but he'll be useful. _Extremely_ useful." He turned to Lin. "Let's go."

"Yes."

"Mai, kindly wake up my brother and tell him to quit slacking off. We're not even two hours away from Tokyo, and he goes and sneaks off to catnap." And with this order, he stalks off with Lin-san, leaving me, Ayako, and Bou-san to look at one another with amused glances.

"He doesn't have a very good opinion of his brother, I see," Bou-san said with a laugh.

"Well, Naru has to realize sometime that he's not the _only_ good-looking person in the world, you know," Ayako giggled.

"Right," I said with a sigh.

A sleepy sound came from the van, and with a start, Gene awoke and sat up, a hand running through his dark hair as he stretched his legs lazily.

"Here… 'lready?"

"Yes, kid," Bou-san smirked, before grabbing the unyielding Gene and dragging him off. "And we better get to Naru-chan's side before he gets mad."

* * *

><p>We watched as Naru introduced us to the head of the orphanage, a slight middle-aged woman by the name of Takahashi Emi.<p>

"Have you anything to add to Satō-san's statement in the office?" Naru asked straightforwardly, pen poised as Takahashi-san smiled at us cordially. "Anything about the hauntings?"

"Nothing more, except for the appearances of the ghosts," Takahashi-san said. "I believe that the ghost in the lavatory was supposedly a man with a noose around his neck and hanging from the ceiling in one of the cubicles, while the playroom ghost was a girl with a knife in her back. As to the ghost in the dining hall, all the children agree that it had the appearance of a burned corpse…"

I shivered as I heard the description of the dining-hall ghost.

"…I think that's all, but I'll certainly go and talk to you once I remember anything that I may have overlooked."

"I see. Well, thank you." Naru turned to Gene, who stared back at him, apparently faintly disinterested in the conversation. He sighed.

"Please tell us if you'll need anything," was her parting words after, and had Asami-san, who was standing by a corner, to guide us to the room provided for where we'll set up base.

"It's a rather unused room," she supplied as she turned the key in the doorknob. "It's spacious, though, so I think you'll be comfortable here. If ever you'll need anything, don't hesitate to call. I'm just in the volunteers' office. That's the door at the far end of the corridor."

Once the door had closed behind Asami-san, Gene promptly dropped onto a vacant chair and sighed loudly. Naru was staring intently at him.

"There's a lot of voices whispering at me, Noll," were the first words that came out of Gene's mouth, making us look a bit confused.

"How many?"

"I dunno…" Gene was frowning as he concentrated, or rather, tried to. "I couldn't tell… they're speaking all at once…"

"The spirits?" Bou-san asked incredulously.

Gene just sighed as he finally lost focus and started gazing off into empty space. "There's three presences that are worth mentioning though… One is a spirit that could fall into the, I dunno… third category… It's, like, totally confused… The second can fall into the fourth… It feels as if it's got anger or sorrow concentrated within… And the last can also fall into either the third and the fourth category… Purely rage, and a bit of confusion too…"

Bou-san and I exchanged glances that were purely the "What's he talking about?" kind.

Naru explained, "Gene normally segregates spirits into one of eight categories based on the emotions that he feels are coming from them. Category one spirits are guardian spirits, category two are lost souls, three are spirits who do not know that they are dead yet, four are spirits with unfinished businesses, five are self-appointed guardian spirits, six are spirits who are just waiting for their next life, seven are what we call 'messengers', and eight are just people who experience astral projection."

"Those three are the most prominent presences," Gene continued on, as if Naru hadn't spoken. "I think we should just focus the cameras on their locations. The other spirits aren't particularly harmful or significant."

Naru shot Bou-san a look that spoke volumes about "_See, I just told you so_". Yeah, the annoyingly smug kind.

* * *

><p>"That was ominously easy," Bou-san said as we finished setting up the cameras. "He even identified their kinds."<p>

"But not their identities yet," I remarked. "That'll be the hard part, I suppose. That is, to actually exorcise them. We have to find out who they are first."

Bou-san snorted. "Just put Yasuhara on it and it'll be over in no time. Although, you're right about the exorcism. If they're ages here already, it'll be quite a problem to make them see reason."

I nodded agreeably, and we walked out of the playroom and back to base.

* * *

><p>"My head's <em>splitting<em> open, Noll—"

"I can't do anything about it if it's brought about by psychic means, Gene."

When we got back to base, Gene was experiencing an extremely bad headache (judging from his expression, since his teeth were gritted tightly and his eyes were even tearing up) while Naru was beside him, eyebrows drawn into a scowl as he touched his twin's forehead gently.

"Just get _rid_ of the damned piano already! It's so loud!"

"Er, there's nothing that even remotely resembles a piano here, you know…" Bou-san said worriedly, glancing at me. I glanced worriedly back.

"But I can hear it!" Gene protested, looking up and looking beseechingly at Bou-san. "It's so loud that even a deaf man could have heard it!"

"Why's he like that? And where's Ayako?" I asked Naru, who sighed and mouthed, '_Mai, tea_'. I complied with an annoyed yet resigned huff.

"I sent Matsuzaki-san to place some charms around the dorms of the children and the staff. And one of Gene's main ESP abilities is clairaudience, meaning it's usual for him to hear what everyone normally can't. That's why he was only hearing voices earlier rather than actually see presences, compared to Hara-san's ability. And now he's hearing a piano. Maybe the same sounds that the staff was claiming to hear every four a.m."

"I see," Bou-san said with a resigned sigh. "So we can't really do anything about it but wait for it to go away, then?"

"That's what I told him." Naru watched Gene with an apathetic expression as the other whimpered.

"NOLL—"

"Keep quiet, you."

* * *

><p>Luckily, Gene's headache seemed to wear off as the afternoon wore on. He even managed a small smile when I asked him if he would like some tea.<p>

"Are you alright now?" I asked as I watched him sip at his tea. The sunset was dyeing the room a dimming red-gold.

"Mm," he mumbled. "This leaf-water's not half-bad too…"

I was quite amused at his euphemism for tea. It was quite obvious that he's not that fond of the beverage as Naru is.

"Tea is good for the health," I told him.

"That is, if you don't take too much of it," he countered. I guess he's feeling a lot better to even bother countering my argument.

"Well, if you put it that way…"

The door opened and in strolled Naru, who looked rather miffed about something as he sat beside his brother and looked through his notes. Gene amiably slid his own tea mug toward him, making Naru glance at him with a silent thanks before taking a tentative sip.

"What did you discover, Noll?"

"Nothing much yet. That's what's frustrating me. Apparently, no one in the neighborhood knew enough to tell me anything even remotely tied to this place that can have anything to do with the strange goings-on. I guess we're stuck until I can go to the library tomorrow morning. And I remember that we should talk to those kids who seemed to have communicated with the playroom spirit." He took another sip and set the mug down before finally standing up. "How's your head, Gene?"

"Feeling loads better, thanks," was the other's answer. Naru nodded slightly and went to Lin-san to talk to him about something concerning the cameras. I exchanged a look with Gene, whose suddenly serious expression made him look like Naru even more.

But in the evening, there was an incident that made Naru ditch his plans of collecting some data himself the next morning.

We had been busy examining room temperatures and video feeds when Asami-san suddenly burst into the room, her face pale and her beautiful eyes wide with shock.

"Please… _hurry_!" she gasped. "Another one has been possessed… It's by the playroom ghost this time!"

"A child?" Bou-san asked with a serious voice.

Asami-san shook her head frantically. "No— Kira-san… She's one of my fellow volunteers!" She let out a sob. "Please! It's going to kill her! I swear it's _going_ to!"

"Let's go," Naru said in a deadly calm voice, and Bou-san's eyes narrowed.

"Yes, _let's_," were the only words that he said, and I immediately knew that they think that the situation was this serious already, and we haven't even stayed here for the full first twenty-four hours yet.

* * *

><p>When we got to the playroom, it was eerily quiet, except for the frightened cries of the children inside. Naru quickly opened the door and we saw that Kira-san, the possessed woman, was calmly sitting in a corner, her eyes angrily fixed on the kids and humming a tune under her breath. When Naru opened the door, however, she had looked up and stared at us directly. Naru quietly instructed Asami-san to lead the children outside while the spirit was passive, and Asami-san quickly acquiesced.<p>

Once the last one was ushered through, we were already inside, Bou-san in front and Lin-san bringing up the rear.

She didn't even look up when Bou-san started to perform the sword hand-sign and chant, "_Naumaku sanmanda bazaradan kan. On kiri kiri bazara bajiri hora manda manda. On sara sara bazara harakya un hatta…_"

She looked up slightly with a mirthless smile, still humming the same tune but teasing the volume up. In the corner of my eye, I saw Gene's bright blue eyes go strangely blank as he stared at the woman in surprise.

"_On amiritodo hanba un hatta. On bisohora daraki shabasara hanjara un hatta…_"

"That tune—" Gene said with a blank expression, jaw slackening as his hand blindly reached forward—

"_Gene!_"

The warning cry from Naru was instantaneous, almost instinctively fast, but Kira-san had already launched herself at Gene's outstretched arm, knocking him to the ground as she clawed with sharp nails at his face.

"_On asanmagini unhatta! On shaugyarei makasanmaen sowaka!_" Bou-san was frantically chanting, focus never wavering as he attempted to weave the seal.

Lin-san and Naru acted quickly, separating Gene, who was ominously limp, from Kira-san as the woman grew increasingly violent. I saw that she had managed to reach at Gene's face, three parallel scratch wounds bleeding rather badly on his pale cheek.

"_Sie wissen!_" Kira-san screeched in perfect German. "_Sie wissen!_"

Gene was murmuring something under his breath so quickly that I can't read his lips, while Naru was listening intently as he glared at Kira-san's bloody fingernails.

"Matsuzaki-san, drive the spirit away." His voice was harsh when Gene finally paused for breath.

"But—" Ayako looked uncertain.

"She's got an unfinished business here. She wants revenge." Naru let out a strained breath. "Just drive her away. That's the least that you can do. You would not be able to do much more unless she gets to exact her revenge. And what exactly is her revenge all about is what we're going to find out before long."

Ayako steadied herself. "Alright. Here goes." She made a sword hand seal for the first word of the kuji-in and started to recite, her hands changing from position to another exactly eight times as she proceeded. "Rin! Pyou! Tou! Sha!—"

Kira-san smirked at Naru and Gene with wide, deranged eyes as she struggled like a wildcat in Lin-san's iron grip. I shivered.

"—Kai! Chin! Retsu! Zai!"

A giggle. The spirit was cackling uncontrollably, her right arm breaking free from Lin-san's grasp. She was holding her hand out to Gene, palm up as she gestured and opened her mouth wide in a silent mocking laugh.

"_Sie wissen. Du bist unglücklich._"

"_Zen_!"

With a bloodcurdling scream, the spirit fled, and I heard a sound of something like birds' wings as the ghost of the mysterious German girl went out into the night.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:**

And deeper we go~

Thank you for the alerts and reviews! I'm honored to have my story alerted and/or added to the favorites list by you! :)

For those who are reading 'Sounds of Silence', it may take while before I update because I'm focusing on this story first… More material, y'see.

* * *

><p><strong>Please do review!<strong>


	5. Julchen

**_A Tale of Two Brothers_**

* * *

><p><strong>IMPORTANT<strong>! Read this! DL, DR!

**Pairings**: NaruMai. My one and only Ghost Hunt OTP.

**Genres**: Supernatural & Romance

**Disclaimer**: I will never own Ghost Hunt, 'kay? All rights reserved by all concerned parties.

* * *

><p><strong><em>File 5:<em>**  
><em>Julchen<em>

* * *

><p>"Are you alright?"<p>

"Yes. Just, uh, some scratches…" Gene felt his face gingerly and let out a hiss when his fingers came into contact with the wounds on his cheek. "…And they sting so bloody bad…"

Bou-san glared at him. "That's your fault, though. What were you thinking back then? You could have received something much worse than scratches!"

Gene winced as Naru flung a wet cloth on the wounded side of his face with perfect aim. "Ow! That hurts!" he yelped, quickly taking the cloth off his wounds. "And how is Kira-san doing?"

"She's a bit disoriented, but she'll be fine," Lin-san replied.

Naru stared at Gene intensely. "Pull off another stunt like that and I'll have to seriously consider spiking your drink with sleeping pills and shipping you back to Cambridge in a box. And yes, I'll be hiding your passport with me before that."

"Aw, Noll, I'm sorry for making you worry…"

"Watch yourself. I'm not going to pay for any furniture that you may break during our stay here."

_April, day 1. 8:26 pm._

We were back at base after the rather exciting events of the night. I was busy clearing up the clutter of papers and tea things on the table in the center of the room, carefully averting my eyes from Gene's face. The scratches looked pretty deep and, well, awfully painful, I should think. It made me wince every time I set eyes on it.

"Let's call it a day, shall we, everyone?" Bou-san let out a sigh. "Asami-san gave us keys for the vacant dorms on the second floor. The girls take the smaller one, the boys the other."

"All right," Ayako answered, also with a sigh, and after handing her the keys to the girls' room, Bou-san led us upstairs to, at last, quiet and peace.

* * *

><p><em>April, day 2. 1:37 pm.<em>

We were all out of sorts the next day, maybe because we were all thinking of the events that happened last night in our beds. I hadn't slept a wink, myself, since I was busy thinking about that spirit that we had cast out. Her screams of "sie wissen!" in particular was quite disturbing.

Naru seemed as if he was thinking about the events of last night too, since his temper was shorter than usual and his intake of caffeine had multiplied by three times. All in all, my patience was stretched to the limit. I was even rather glad to see him depart from the base to go around the orphanage and gather more information, if just to escape from his bad mood.

Lin-san informed us that Naru had already sent for Yasuhara-san and Masako. I was a bit irritated by the fact that Masako was commissioned to our side once again, but since she was one of our regulars, I made no comment. At least, not outwardly.

"They'll arrive quite soon, Tokyo is only a couple hours away by train," Lin-san said. And that was the end of it.

Meanwhile, Bou-san and Ayako were watching Gene, who was strolling nonstop around the room and looking mightily abstracted. I was quite disturbed by the fact that Gene's usual warm smile was missing in action. Maybe he was thinking of something that perturbed him? Ah, I wish I could just up and ask. But, huh…

Finally, he sat back down, and Bou-san leaned forward and raised this question at him.

"What did you say you've felt early this morning?"

I looked up. "Huh?"

Gene shrugged with a confused look. "The temperature rose at around one a.m. Then it intensified for an hour before it finally cooled down. I wasn't able to sleep because of that, and I think I also kept Noll awake too. Oops." He smiled slightly, not in the least repentant.

"So that's why he was looking so exhausted?" I sighed. "You kept him up?" And yeah, _I_ was the one who reaped the results.

"Aye, aye," he replied with a light tone.

"We should really investigate that," Bou-san decided seriously. "It could be something like a push to the right direction or something."

"It's hot," Gene said suddenly, sitting upright and narrowing his expressive eyes. "Isn't there something like ice cream at this place?"

"Hey, hey, hey," Bou-san said with his best "big brother" tone. "Don't think about skylarking all of a sudden, all right? This matter is serious, look—the first spirit even tried to assault you!"—gesturing to the gauze on the wounds that adorned one side of Gene's face.

Gene touched the cloth pad covering the wounds with careful fingers and smiled tentatively. They had long ceased from their copious bleeding, but still looked a lot tender underneath the dressing. One thing's for sure, I don't envy him at that state. It's sure to sting, if not hurt, a lot.

"At least you can sort out the two of us easily, right?" he said bracingly. "Look, just glance at us and—"

"See which one of us is the damaged merchandise, right?" a stinging remark from the doorway finished Gene's sentence, and with an annoyed huff, Naru crossed the threshold of the room and glared at Gene. "And not just physically. Also mentally."

Gene squinted at him, and asked in a really serious tone, "Got any ice cream?"

Naru's face, normally kept so carefully blank, was now looking as if he was attending a poorly-conducted funeral at Gene's remark, making Bou-san convulse with supressed laughter. "What made you think that?"

"It's so hot," Gene said with a pout. "Didn't you have any?"

"Oh, why am I even bothering to attempt to make intelligent conversation with you?" Naru scoffed and turned to Lin, immediately disengaging our attentions. Gene's eyes followed after him.

"And that's why I love you so much, Noll," he declared dreamily. "You're just so _sweet_…"

Sweet? The day Naru becomes sweet is the day that sugar becomes salty.

"Hearing you being so idiotic about this isn't making me feel any better…" the retort from my narcissist came sullenly.

"Ice cream~"

"Gene. Shut up and go make yourself useful. For example, you can go and investigate on your own. I'm not really interested in what you do as long as you make yourself useful."

"…Sure thing, _sunshine_." Gene got up from his chair, while judging from his scowl, Naru was dying to get Gene out of his hair.

"Go. Just… go." See? I knew him.

My thoughts on this one? I now know why Naru is an extremely conceited young jerk. It's because his brother doesn't make a move to correct it.

"—Mai-san. I said, will you come with me?"

"Huh?" Oh, I spoke out loud.

A mischievous smile, one that I didn't particularly like even if it suited his upbeat personality and his bright eyes. "I'd like to familiarize myself with the neighborhood. Will you accompany me, perhaps?"

I'd come to understand that "familiarizing yourself with the neighborhood" is equivalent to "skylarking" in Gene-speak.

I half-turned to Naru. "Er, may I, _boss_?" Sarcastic emphasis on "boss".

Naru's pensive blue eyes gave Gene a searching look before dropping back to his notebook. "Whatever."

Gene smiled widely at me, and said in English, "_Awesome_."

I could've smiled myself if Bou-san wasn't watching us with a curious look.

* * *

><p>"<em>Oranges and lemons,<em>  
><em>Say the bells of St. Clement's.<em>"

We were walking leisurely down one of the sidewalks of busy Takasaki City. Cars sped up by the roads, and cheery mothers were discussing something about tonight's dinners. All in all, despite the extreme humidity common to all Japan in the summer, everyone was lively and everything relatively peaceful.

I was at least glad to be away from the oppressive atmosphere in the haunted orphanage.

Gene was singing lightly, but since the lyrics were in his native tongue, I gave up trying to decipher everything. I just settled for listening blankly into the tune. I didn't know that someone like him sings.

"_You owe me five farthings,_  
><em>Say the bells of St. Martin's.<em>"

He paused, then suddenly turned to looked at me quizzically. I immediately looked straight ahead, pretending to watch a child who was tugging at the hem of his mother's shirt, presumably wanting to ask for something.

"Mai-san, aren't you hungry?"

I gave him a puzzled, "are-you-serious" look. "Eh? I thought we were going to—"

"The ice cream can wait for a bit," he decided thoughtfully. "I guess."

"And you're the one who decided to go buy some," I sighed.

"I'm sorry," he said, and smiled, a quick flash of mirth that made my heart leap. "But please oblige me this one time."

"All right. But so as you'd know, I haven't any money."

"I didn't say anything about making you pay for anything, though."

"But—!"

"Aw, be a proper oujo-sama and let a gentleman treat you, Mai-san."

"I'm not in any way a princess."

"That's alright, we can manage perfectly," Gene said easily, and we stopped in front of a bakeshop.

"I'd like something sweet," was his perfectly serious response to my incredulous look. "What would you like?"

"Er, anything. Maybe get me what you're getting."

Okay, Eugene Davis, you are seriously confusing me. Foreigners…

When he had bought himself three pieces of melon bread, he proffered me one, in such a wheedling tone that I couldn't help but accept.

I opened my mouth. "You're—"

"What?"

"Um, all right?"

"Really?" He raised his eyes to the sky and wondered. "I was thinking more along the lines of 'insufferable cheapskate' or something like that…"

"You aren't. Three _melonpan_ should cost around 450 yen, and that's still quite dear for just three pieces of bread. Although, I should've collared you because out of all those better choices, you bought melon bread instead. If you haven't asked me to accept so prettily, I would have thrown this back at you." Melon bread—the ultimate Japanese schoolgirl's lunch break companion when one is tired of rice.

"I was just curious," he said matter-of-factly. "I've tasted melon milk before, but not melon bread. So why not try some? I do think it doesn't taste anything like melon, though." He frowned at the bread that he was eating, as if it had done him a great wrong.

"It's not named because of its taste," I told him. "It's named because its shape is somewhat like a half-melon." I opened the packaging of mine and bit. It was nice and crisp on the outside, and fluffy on the inside. Hey, there's chocolate chips inside. Whoop.

"Oh, I see!" He smiled at the bread this time. I felt a great urge to laugh, but took another bite of bread to prevent a mishap.

"Anyways," I took a curious glance at him. "Why are you carrying an umbrella, exactly?"

"Eh, this?" He held the umbrella in his right hand out. I suddenly had the suspicion that he's actually left-handed. "I'm afraid of rain, y'see."

"Uh…" I stared at him. He stared back, so I looked away, cheeks rekindling.

"_When will you pay me?_  
><em>Say the bells of Old Bailey<em>," he sang.

"_When I grow rich,_  
><em>Say the bells of Shoreditch.<em>

"_When will that be?_  
><em>Say the bells of Stepney.<em>

"_I do not know,_  
><em>Says the great bell of Bow<em>."

"You have a nice voice," I remarked, musingly.

"Er, really?" he again downplays my compliment. "Noll could give me a run for my money any time of the day. That is, if you could persuade him…"

"You don't say," I snorted. Then I noticed that we were finally at the convenience store, and we immediately ditched our bread by stuffing it in our pockets. "Anyways, what about your school?"

He shot me a blank look as he pulled a grocery basket from the stack beside the door. "What about it?"

"What I meant was, if you two are here, won't that affect your studies back in England?"

"We're both university students. In college, professors don't really care about your attendance anyways. And we officially went on leave, so it's all right." He led me to the dairy section, and began scrutinizing the ice cream tubs. I followed dazedly.

"You're both university students already? So _fast_!" Ugh, so here is the evidence that Naru clearly has the right to label me as idiotic… He's nothing short of a genius…

"Isn't it…" He began pulling his choices out of the chiller. "And he has more seniority in SPR compared to Lin, and that's why Noll is boss in his own branch, and Lin consents to play second fiddle to a youngster."

"I… I can't…" What I was trying to say was "I can't think of anything to say", frankly…

"This should be enough," he declared, finally, and we marched up to the counter to check out. When we broke out again into the afternoon heat, I began to ask more questions.

"Um, so… I heard that Naru is capable of psychometry?" I inquired casually.

"Yes," he replied, wistfully glancing at his purchases, "but I wouldn't advise him to use it to find people. It affects him rather severely, both physically and psychologically."

"Why so?"

"His ESP is just that awesome," he said simply. "Just a side effect. I mean, all the people that he was asked to find in the past weren't all alive, I should think. So when he uses his ability to search for dead people, he gets rather psychically attached and the effect is he sustains an injury on the part wherever the dead person was hurt. For example, if the person was shot in the head, Noll might experience anything from a bruise on his forehead to a splitting headache that'll have him writhing in agony for hours. There's this one time when his legs got paralyzed for three days because the target of his vision had her legs run over by a car. (My mouth was agape while I was listening about this.) It's one of his cruelest ESP abilities."

I shuddered. "I see…"

And I remember that I did reprimand him in the past about it, and cursed myself for being so freaking insensitive—

_"Do you know what it feels like to die, Naru? Can you imagine the moment you die? Do you understand how fragile we are?"_

He had looked strangely distant after my outburst. No wonder—if he has experienced not one person's death, but hundreds, won't that contribute to his coldness? His fervent determination to distance himself from anybody?

"Here we are, Mai-san," Gene announced cheerfully as we walked through the gateway of the orphanage, his blue eyes pensive and understanding as he glanced at me. He must've known what I was thinking. "Oh, you look like a—"

"I don't need any of your comments." My face must've been so brightly red, since I felt like I was burning up under his gaze. Or maybe it was just because of the heat?

"Fine, I was just saying…"

I'm an idiot. A _blushing_, stuttering idiot.

"Those are some of those ghost hunter guys…" The loud whisper from somebody else pulled me out from my embarrassed state, and I glanced up to look into the faces of two eight-year-old boys standing a short distance from us, their round, cherubic faces so identical that they almost looked like mirror images. I quickly glanced at Gene. His eyes were narrowed ever so slightly, but he was still generally cheerful.

"Hey." The kid who had spoken first was boldly facing us, while his twin hid timidly behind him. "You're those ghost hunters, right?"

"That's right," Gene said with a nod. "And you're those twin mediums, right?" Er…

"Mediums?" The bolder one looked confused.

"Someone who can communicate with ghosts."

"Yeah. So?" The boy looked rather angry. "Gonna turn us in to the asylum?"

"We're ghost hunters, right? So we're not going to do anything of the sort," I said earnestly. "And we think that maybe you knew something about those ghosts in the orphanage that we didn't know. You've already communicated with them, after all…"

"But he's a medium too!" the kid snapped, pointing at Gene, who was still mildly smiling. "So why can't he go and ask them himself?"

I was taken aback. "How did you know—?"

"Spirits have clustered around him as soon as he set foot here as if he's some kind of weird ghost magnet, if you can't feel." The kid glared at me. "It's obvious."

"Ah, you can see them?" Gene asked with a deceivingly innocuous look.

"Can't you?" the boy said with a defiant glance.

"That depends on the spirit that I'm talking with," Gene replied easily. "And back on track, you've actually talked to those spirits without them harming you?"

For the first time, the timid one spoke. "We've just talked with Julchen."

"Julchen?" Gene and I exchanged significant glances.

"Yeah. That twenty-year-old girl who haunts the playroom," the bolder one said definitely. Then he turned to his brother. "Although you weren't supposed to babble about it, 'fraidy-cat!"

The timid one looked slightly abashed. "I'm sorry!"

"Cowardly fraidy-cat can't keep anything to himself," the bolder one taunted. "I sometimes wonder why you became my brother, you're so useless—"

"Am not!"

"_Is_!"

"Am _not_!" The timid one began to cry, and like the usual compassionate guy that he is, Gene immediately intervened.

"You shouldn't fight with your brother," he told the scowling twin quite firmly, and with an elder-brotherly smile and a pat on the little crying gentleman's back, he remarked, "And you shouldn't cry!"

"Why are you interfering?" the bolder one snapped. "I don't think that you even understand our situation!" He glared at his twin. "Yuuji is going to be adopted, and I'm to stay here! It's unfair!"

Gene glanced up at him with a gentle look in his eyes. "Well, it's wrong to assume that I don't know something about your problem, though." He looked at the sniffling Yuuji with a searching look similar to Naru's, and with a sudden surge of inspiration, he asked the other, "What's your name, young man?"

"Ichirou," was the sullen reply.

"Well, Ichirou, I think we can talk about something that'll greatly interest you," Gene said in his best wheedling tone, and of course the matter was settled.

* * *

><p>"You've got…"<p>

Gene smiled at Ichirou, while scooping out the last of his ice cream from its cup. "Yeah, a twin."

Naru stared at Gene evenly. "So you think bringing them back to base would work?"

"Um, I thought you'll have better questions to ask them." Er, the easy way out.

"All right!" Bou-san, who was eating an orange-flavored popsicle that we've split between the two of us, being the twin variety, looked quite in the mood. "Let's start."

The cross-examination (as Gene, who took to catnapping in his armchair while the questions were going on, had dubbed it) took quite a while, but after it, Naru had amassed quite a number of details: That "Julchen" is half-German, that she was twenty at the time of her death, that she was murdered by someone whose name she wouldn't mention, and that she was trying to convince her estranged father to move on with her.

"Her father?" Bou-san said sharply. "But…"

"The ghost in the lavatory," Ichirou said simply. "He's her father. He doesn't know that he's dead already."

"I see," Naru said seriously.

"And she's angry with you guys," Yuuji added in a whisper.

"Why," Gene asked in a toneless voice.

"She thinks you're going to separate her from her papa," Ichirou said with a low voice. "She told us. She's angry with you."

"That's…" Bou-san looked as if he was struggling with words.

"Preposterous," Gene supplied. I could almost see the cogs turning in his brain as he came up with something.

"Gene," Naru's voice rang out with an awful finality.

"What?"

"I heard you. Don't even think about doing it."

Their psychic connection was sometimes frighteningly clear.

* * *

><p>"Yasuhara-san," Naru's cold, crisp voice made itself heard a mere three minutes after I ushered our additional members in. Yasuhara-san was staring at Gene interestedly, having never met him before this. "Please collect information about this building and the German family that once lived in here, all the details that you can find. I need all the data as soon as possible."<p>

"On it, Shibuya-san," Yasuhara-san said with an obliging smile. He stole another glance at Gene, earning him a curious look and a smile from the medium. "And I confess that I'm flabbergasted at this evidence that Takigawa-san wasn't apparently lying when he told me that you had a brother—and that you're twins, at that…"

"Yasuhara-san," Naru said with gritted teeth, and Yasuhara-san managed an amiable smile and a nod at Gene before finally excusing himself out.

Meanwhile, Masako was sitting with a disturbed face on a footstool in the corner of the room, evidently distressed at the mishmash of ghostly emotions in the place.

"I didn't know that this is how strong their emotions are…" she murmured as I handed her a mug of tea. "So overwhelmingly clear…"

Gene curled up in an armchair beside the fireplace, his eyes sliding out of focus as he stared wistfully at the dusty red of the carpet. Once or twice he glanced at Naru thoughtfully, as if wanting to say something, but still stayed silent.

I dunno, but that indecisive expression of his disturbed me. I don't even know why. Call it woman's instinct.

* * *

><p><em>April, day 2. 7:22 pm.<em>

Yasuhara-san came back with an exhausted look, but otherwise he still seemed as if he was enjoying his job. In addition, he was carrying a sizable number of files.

"I found out quite a bit about this building, Shibuya-san," he began, flopping tiredly on a chair that Bou-san has drawn up for him. "I learned that this had been a mansion before being turned into an orphanage three years ago. Quite obvious with those furnishings," gesturing around to the chandelier that hung on the ceiling, and the red carpet. "And about the German family… There was only one, the Pfeiffer family…" Yasuhara-san riffled through the papers until he found what he was looking for. "Here. The father was named Franz Pfeiffer, and he had a daughter, named Juliet. They began to live here in Takasaki six years ago, so that would make Juliet about eighteen years old when they first came to Gunma." Gene's and Naru's eyes, both as dark blue as star sapphires, met flawlessly at the mention of the names, as if reading each other's minds. They held identical triumphant looks in their faces. It could have been cute if I wasn't still listening to Yasuhara-san's narrative.

"The girl's biological mother is a Japanese named Honda Aika, whom Franz had met on one of his business trips here in Japan, so that makes Juliet half-Japanese…" Yasuhara-san continued to read through the paper. "Juliet also inherited a love for music, mainly singing and piano, because of her mother, who was a music teacher. However, when the girl turned nineteen, her mother died from leukemia, and Franz decided to remarry. This time, it was another Japanese woman named Takanashi Eri. Naturally, Juliet didn't like the match, as a good daughter would, since Eri was just a bit over six years older than her. Eri and Juliet didn't really get along, as stated by a past neighbor living two houses from here." Yasuhara-san raised his bespectacled eyes to meet our expectant faces. "And when Juliet turned twenty, that was when tragedy struck."

"She was murdered," Naru stated coolly.

"Yes," Yasuhara-san said. "That's it."

"So what happened?" yawned Gene. Frankly, jet lag didn't seem to apply to his catlike constitution. He just slept whenever he felt like it.

"Naturally, the blame fell on Eri, since the maid and the butler were there to testify that she and Juliet weren't on the best terms, and that she had been spotted going in the piano room half an hour before Juliet was found dead with a knife in her back, sprawled facedown on the floor beside her piano. However, Juliet's father was convinced of his second wife's innocence for some reason or another, and finally, having hired the best lawyer his fortune can afford, he succeeded in getting Eri out from the clutches of the law.

"A year later, Juliet's father was said to have committed suicide in his bathroom."

"Huh?" My eyes bulged.

"Yup. For quite unknown reasons, too." Yasuhara-san frowned. "There are inconsistencies, but from then on, Takanashi Eri, from being just a simple, pretty country girl, became the heiress to the whole Pfeiffer estate, as was written in Franz Pfeiffer's will."

"I smell a rat," Ayako commented.

Me too, Ayako.

"Well, another year later, the last tragedy struck." Yasuhara-san looked somber as he continued to read. "The mansion suffered a terrible fire, and eyewitnesses swore that they could hear Eri's agonized screams from the house as it burned down. They discovered only four corpses out of the five people supposedly living there at the time of the incident. The neighbors all surmise that Eri's was the only body never to have been found. This was only pure speculation, of course, seeing that the retrieved bodies were all unidentifiable, and the dental records were only for the viewing of their respective families. The day after the medical reports had been released, the Takanashi family just up and left."

I was awestruck. "That's… that's horrible…"

* * *

><p>"I don't understand," Gene stated bluntly as we prepared to call it a day.<p>

"What?" Bou-san asked.

"When I first entered this building, I felt that the ghost in the lavatory, if it was indeed Juliet's father's spirit, was exhibiting pure confusion. Now, if Franz Pfeiffer had indeed committed suicide, why was he confused? He killed himself, therefore, shouldn't he know already that he was dead?"

"I agree," Naru said shortly. "That assumption covered, we can finally state safely that…"

"He was also murdered." Gene was dead serious. "Murdered so suddenly that he didn't know what struck him even after his death. It was made to look like a suicide to lead people astray. And that was the reason why he can't move on."

"He needs to know that he's already dead," Naru said, crossing his arms and leaning on the wall. "Because as long as he couldn't move on, Julchen also wouldn't."

And with that awful statement, he met Gene's eyes. His elder twin was looking wary.

"Eugene, could we use you?"

Gene, in his usual sunny disposition, cracked a smile. "I thought you'd never ask, Oliver."

* * *

><p>I was just dozing off in my bed that night when I was jolted awake by a stealthy step in front of me. I opened my eyes partially, too fearful of what I might see once I opened them fully, and realized that there were silver orbs of light floating all around me. Then I realized that it must be one of those dreams.<p>

"Mai?"

I bolted out of bed as fast as lightning, and collided with the intruder. He was sitting on the edge of my bed, watching me with amused interest.

"What are you doing here?" I asked in a strained whisper, even though I already know that this was a dream.

"You didn't ask me that in the first few projections," he told me with a smile. Then it hit me.

"It was you all along?"

He cocked his head to the side like a curious bird. "Ever at your service, Mai."

There he was, Gene Davis, sitting on my bed and destroying my firm belief about the dreams that I've experienced in the past cases, and I was not liking it one bit.

"What are you doing?" I hissed.

"I'm going to show you something interesting," was what he merely said while he stood up. "Come, Julchen isn't very patient."

Julchen?

He smiled at my expression and held out his hand. I took it reluctantly, feeling his soft yet firm skin against mine for the second time in a month, and thus began my most bizarre dream.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:**

Whee~ Thank you to all alerts and reviewers! We're a bit down on the reviews though… I need more comments to help me through with this plot! Pretty please…

* * *

><p><strong>Please do review!<strong>


	6. Channeling

**_A Tale of Two Brothers_**

* * *

><p><strong>IMPORTANT<strong>! Read this! DL, DR!

**Pairings**: NaruMai. My one and only Ghost Hunt OTP.

**Genres**: Supernatural & Romance

**Disclaimer**: I will never own Ghost Hunt, 'kay? All rights reserved by all concerned parties.

* * *

><p><strong><em>File 6:<em>**  
><em>Channeling<em>

* * *

><p>Gene pulled me out into the second-floor corridor. He seemed as if he was practically glowing at the prospect of seeing something otherworldly. Since I didn't share his enthusiasm in any form, I glanced all around me nervously.<p>

"This is still the orphanage, right?" I continued awkwardly.

"Yes, but we'll be somewhere quite different in a moment. Excuse me while I tune in to the memories of this building." And when we finally proceeded downstairs, the scenery began blurring in a swirl of colors, and we were standing in the grandest hallway that I've ever been in.

"_Vati_, I insist upon your staying single. I cannot tolerate that woman inside this house."

We saw a teenaged girl and her father strolling towards us in the hall. The girl was very pretty, with dark, wavy hair running down her back and the darkest eyes that I've ever seen in my life. On the contrary, her bespectacled father was blond and green-eyed, so I presume that she inherited her characteristics from her Japanese mother. They sound as if they were arguing about something.

"Julchen, be reasonable. I cannot stay a widower forever. If she were alive, I knew that your _Mutti_ will agree."

"If she were alive, that is. We wouldn't know, because she is already gone!"

"Juliet, you are acting like a spoiled brat. I am going to marry Eri, and that'll be the end of it!" And with that, Franz Pfeiffer stormed off, while Juliet stared after her father with a mixture of rage and extreme sorrow.

"Mai, let's go," Gene said in a whisper, and with a conflicted nod, I let him guide me towards the end of the corridor, wherein the scenery once again blurred and swirled like a thousand colorful soap bubbles.

When I opened my eyes, I was standing in a large room. Gene was looking particularly curious as he stared at the grand piano standing in the middle. With a surprised cry, I pointed at the body of the young girl who was lying on the floor, her outstretched right fingers just mere inches away from where the piano stood. A kitchen knife was in her back, while blood soaked into the carpet around her like a bad omen.

"Three," he counted under his breath, "two… and _one_…"

The only door to the room opened, and in walked a young woman, presumably at around twenty-six years of age. I had no doubt whatsoever as to the guess that this was Franz Pfeiffer's new wife. Takanashi Eri.

"Julchen, dinner is ready," she said with a gentle tone. Rather a far cry from the picture of her that Julchen drew in my mind during her argument earlier with Franz.

I held my breath as she approached the piano.

"Julchen?"

Just then, she realized what, or rather, who was lying on the floor like a tossed rag doll.

"_Juliet_—!"

"That'll be enough," Gene said calmly, and pulled me gently by the elbow. I tore my eyes from the horrified Eri and her dead stepdaughter, and followed Gene's warm guidance into the inviting recesses of the dark.

My eyes snapped open, and I realized that I'd broken into a cold sweat.

I must talk to him about this.

* * *

><p><em>April, day 3. 8:20 am.<em>

"Had a good night's rest, Mai-san?" Gene was in his usual cheerful and polite self the next morning. I was quite silent since Naru and the others were with us, since the subject of my dreams had always been a tender spot with me. I'd never really wanted them to think that those dreams of mine were in any way reliable, but since Gene was a medium and he was apparently channeling his wavelength with mine, I was suddenly not so sure if they were to be in any way disregarded. And I just had a retrocognitive vision last night, if all other factors were to be erased.

I suddenly couldn't take it anymore, so I stood and asked Gene if he had a moment.

"Of course," he said with a meaningful glance, and we both walked right out of the room.

I swear I could feel the intensity of Naru's omniscient look boring through both of us. He wasn't titled Dr. Oliver Davis at the age of sixteen for virtually nothing, after all.

"I'm sure you already know why I am wanting to talk to you like this," I said brusquely.

"I made a guess," he said simply. "About last night?"

"Yeah." I started to walk up and down the neat path cutting across the garden. "And I don't understand why you have to drag me into those dreams. You're the professional, right?"

"Well, it's not because I liked including you in my visions, Mai, since most of the time, they're rather nasty and cryptic," he said, and I noticed that he dropped the honorific. "It had always been an involuntary action on my part to drag someone psychically receptive into my dreams, and since your mind wasn't as strongly guarded as Noll's or Hara-san's, I can break into you without any trouble and pull you into something."

"Eugene Davis—"

"I'm not Eugene at this precise moment of time, if you must remember," he said lightly, dark blue eyes looking up into the serene sky.

"Fine. Shibuya _Kazuo_." I was now quite convinced that this seemingly open-faced teenager in front of me is just as complex as Naru, if not more so. What had happened to both of them as kids to make them as hard to read as puzzles? "What about those other times when you appeared in dreams connected to cases that you weren't even aware of? Why—?"

"Mai, even if I tell you that I'm a reckless wandering telepath that's concerned with his little brother's welfare, that'll explain nothing to you," Gene answered gently, his honest eyes wistful. "And if you knew how much I envied your deep telepathic connection with Noll…" He sighed. "Well, let's just say that I'm a long-suffering individual, considering what hardships and unbelievable stress I've undergone just to appease my worry for Oliver."

"I can't understand you," I said shortly.

He laughed, breaking the tension. "Oh, does that mean that I make a terrible speaker to you?"

"Stop teasing," I mumbled, and with an easy gentlemanly grace, he smiled at me and offered his arm for me to take, and we made our way back to base together in relative silence.

* * *

><p><em>April, day 3. 10:32 pm.<em>

The room provided for the séance was already set, the single candle placed on the middle of the rectangular table in the center of the room, keeping everything lit in the smallest possible amount of light needed to see.

Gene was staring contemplatively into the flickering light of the candle, his normally blue eyes dyed black because of the dark. Meanwhile, Naru was talking with Lin-san, his eyes narrowed with absorption into whatever topic they were currently discussing. I sighed at this and glanced over at Masako, who was watching Gene intently, or maybe the area beside him. I dunno. Her eyes seemed to me to be particularly unfocused on any particular object.

She sensed me staring at her, and gave a sort of a half-smile before answering the question that was half-formed in my mind.

"I was just feeling around Davis-san's immediate energy space," she told me, her right hand pressed unconsciously on her breast. "He's started the channeling already."

"Really?" I squinted at Gene. He was still staring vacantly into the light of the candle. "Doesn't seem so to me. But maybe that'll explain this unusual coolness in summer."

"He's drawn a spirit by his right side. A tall, willowy figure, with glasses upon his nose. There's a noose around his neck, and he's hanging by the ceiling." Masako paused, her eyes sorrowful. "He's been through a lot of pain."

I remembered what Franz Pfeiffer looked like in my dream. Yes, he was wearing glasses. Maybe this was him.

"Yep, that's him," I said, as if to myself.

Masako looked at me carefully, as if wanting to know the reason behind my apparent certainty. It wasn't as if I'd found a picture of Juliet's father lying around, anyway.

I blushed and looked away. "Let's just say that I had one of those, um, dreams." I said it really lamely.

"Okay," was all that she said, but she still gave me a thoughtful glance out of the corner of her eye after turning away.

"Gene," Naru's voice was more subdued than usual, but it can be heard quite clearly in the silent room. "Shall we?"

"Yeah," Gene said dreamily. "Convince him that he's already dead. He'll give you twenty minutes. _Good luck, sunshine_." The last sentence was in English.

"That's already plenty. Alright, let's start." Naru stared into Gene's blank eyes and exhaled slowly.

"Can you hear me clearly?"

"Yes. He can." Gene had his head lazily inclined to his right.

"Are you Franz Pfeiffer, father of Juliet Pfeiffer and widower of Honda Aika?"

"He was."

"Did you realize…" The tone of Naru's voice tilted on the nervous, before shifting to his normal emotionless one. "…that you are already dead?"

"Noll…" Gene was scowling (albeit a bit halfheartedly) at the suddenness of the question, but he immediately replied, "He hasn't, of course. He's a bit shocked at having been asked that question 'by someone who is clearly younger than his Julchen'. And offended."

"Then, we shall proceed to the next." Naru's eyes were as cool as ice. "What do you know about your daughter Juliet's death?"

"He's distressed by the question."

"Naturally." Naru had a dead serious expression as he proceeded. "Why are you convinced that your second wife Eri is innocent of your own daughter's murder? And if she is truly innocent, do you perhaps know who was the true perpetrator of the crime?"

"He doesn't want to answer. He's threatening to leave."

"We're going to waste our time if this goes on, Pfeiffer-san." Naru took a deep breath. "Of course, this is pure speculation, Pfeiffer-san, and I am sorry to ask, but…" His eyes steeled. "Are you Juliet's killer?"

"He says no, decidedly, and that he doesn't want to press upon the matter any longer."

"I'll take your word for it then," Naru said grimly. "But I do think that you understand that someone else is the culprit of all this hate? Pfeiffer-san, remember that you are already dead. Let my brother guide you to the light."

And with that, Gene closed his angelic eyes, crossed himself, and was beginning to utter a short prayer, when something made a loud rapping noise on the ceiling. The chandelier bounced and threatened to crash down at the table.

I looked up, my heart pounding. Actually, we all did. Masako looked faint, while Bou-san was apprehensive as he watched the crystals that hung from the chandelier directly above the candle sway.

"She has found us," Naru said simply, and we immediately understood.

She doesn't want her father to go before her. She wants them to go… strictly together.

And she's angry at us for speeding up her father's moving on while she is still not appeased.

Gene's eyes shot open, his wide eyes staring directly into the ceiling, and he shuddered.

"Gene." Naru was suddenly on alert, and he was already starting forward to the assistance of his brother when—

The feeble light of the candle suddenly went out, and an enraged scream rang in the whole building.

"_Ich werde dich töten!_"

Ringing silence, then an endless barrage of rapping sounds everywhere and an extreme drop in temperature, which made us almost freeze, since we all wore light. I heard someone fall on the floor and start to writhe.

"Who was that?" I called frantically. "Is anybody hurt!"

"Th-they're everywhere!" Masako said, her voice shaking. "She stirred up the other spirits!"

"Crap!" Bou-san swore, and I felt, rather than see, him form a hand seal and utter a chant. "_Taritsuta boritsu hara boritsu… Takimei takimei kara santan'uenbi sowaka…_"

I instinctively formed the sword position and recited Fudou Myou-Ou's seal. "_Naumaku sanmanda bazaradan kan!_" Beside me, Ayako was preparing to unleash the kuji-in over the noise, and we both chanted, "_Rin! Pyou! Tou! Sha! Kai! Chin! Retsu! Zai! Zen!_"

"Begone!" Ayako screeched, and the temperature rose a few more degrees as more spirits were dispelled.

If only we had John here, I immediately thought. Then it would have been easier.

Lin-san had already dispatched his shiki, one of them even brushing past my ankle like a snake as I dispelled more spirits.

Naru and Gene. I can't think clearly as I was casting more spells, but in the back of my head, I was getting worried.

"Naru? Gene?" I called out. "Are you all right?"

"Fine," Naru answered grimly, and a silent bright light fell upon the room as he gathered in his right hand an energy that seemed to me was the last thing that I wanted to see again. He was preparing to use qigong one more time. How utterly selfish!

"Naru!" I was about to accost him, but Lin-san stepped forward and blocked my progress by flinging out an arm.

"It will be alright," he said. "Gene is here. He'll be okay."

I had still wanted to go and give Naru the good poke in the head that he so deserved, but something in Lin-san's eyes made me accept the fact and go back to my place.

"_Go_," Gene murmured in his younger twin's ear, and Naru finally let go. The burst of electric power was overwhelming, warm, and tingly to the skin, as it exploded and sent the spirits reeling from the might of someone who possesses energy that can rival even a god.

The warmth of Naru's qi, his own life essence, enveloped us for a few more moments before Bou-san finally slapped the switch on. The lights flickered a bit before finally coming on at full force, making me blink after the soft light from Naru's qigong use. We were all quite stunned at the reckless use.

So it was quite understandable that I wasn't able to process what the Bou-san meant when he finally opened his mouth and spoke.

"_Shounen_!"

* * *

><p><strong>AN:**

W-what was happening?

Okay, calm down. I'm going to update after an indefinite period, hell if I don't get back soon.

* * *

><p>Please do review!<p> 


	7. Exorcisms

**_A Tale of Two Brothers_**

* * *

><p><strong>IMPORTANT<strong>! Read this! DL, DR!

**Pairings**: NaruMai. My one and only Ghost Hunt OTP.

**Genres**: Supernatural & Romance

**Disclaimer**: I will never own Ghost Hunt, 'kay? All rights reserved by all concerned parties.

* * *

><p><strong><em>File 7:<em>**  
><em>Exorcisms<em>

* * *

><p>"<em>Shounen<em>!"

I saw Yasuhara-san smile weakly from his kneeling position by the wall. His forehead was badly bleeding, and he was as pale as a ghost. No pun intended. "One of them got me. Ow, it's stinging…"

_April, day 3. _

I winced. "Yasuhara-san, don't even try to downplay your injury. It's even worse than Gene's." He looked as if he had run into a wall so hard it gave him memory loss.

"I'll get some iodine," Ayako volunteered, and like the mother hen that she was, immediately procured first-aid things from her bag. I sometimes forget that she was a doctor, myself.

Naru was thin-lipped as he helped Gene onto a chair. The older Davis twin was very pale and his body was trembling, as if he had just ran a twenty-kilometer run and had not yet recovered.

"Are you alright?" Naru asked his twin gently, making me smirk knowingly at Bou-san, who smirked back. Ah, so this narcissist has a heart underneath that icy exterior, after all…

"I'm alright, please worry about Yasuhara-san," Gene said affably, dark blue eyes resting upon said Yasuhara-san. Wait, are they friends already?

"I'll take you to your room," Naru decided grimly. "I'll be back. Mai, tidy the place up."

"Alright," I sighed. Gene smiled apologetically at me as he passed.

* * *

><p>Naru grimly marched Gene to the boys' room. His elder twin had finally surrendered his calm facade earlier, his face paling even more and his breathing getting erratic as he closed his eyes with a dizzy expression.<p>

"Those spirits stressed him out," Naru told Lin with a scowl.

Gene opened his eyes and smiled wanly. "It wasn't a big deal, though—"

"Tell me that when you can walk straight, unsupported, to your room." Naru was unsympathetic as he guided Gene to the bed, while Lin stayed outside to keep a respectful distance from the twins. "Don't even attempt to go out without my permission, or I swear I'll sell you out to Luella."

"Boo," Gene pouted. "You're no fun."

"Someone always has to keep the idiots in line, Gene-nii-san," Naru said, sarcastic emphasis on the Japanese honorific, and with that parting shot, he smiled sardonically and went out, shutting the door behind him.

Gene grimaced as the stirrings of a headache began. "And now I'm stuck here without anything except a headache to solve this case." He slapped his forehead, frustrated. "Get better already! Merciless Noll…"

* * *

><p>"Is he alright?" I asked Naru the moment he entered base.<p>

"Yeah, if he doesn't do anything well below his actual IQ," he said emotionlessly, and gathered his notes scattered on the table. "We'll be attempting to do an exorcism tomorrow. Meanwhile, we can all call this a day. Hara-san, I'll go over the plans with you tomorrow. Now that Gene is incapacitated, you'll be our main stream."

"Alright," Masako said with a nod. "But are you truly intending to exorcise them all immediately? Julchen is rather violent, and with all those emotions in her, I think it'll be dangerous for us to actually do something…"

"I've sent for John," Lin-san said as he finally entered the room. "He'll be here first thing in the morning."

"I see," Naru muttered, then turned back to Masako. "And Hara-san, leave the plans to me. I'll think of something."

* * *

><p><em>April, day 4. 9:48 am. <em>

"Good to see you, kid," Bou-san greeted John Brown with a slap on the back as John descended from the cab, and to my surprise, along with a slightly flustered Mori Madoka-san. She took a look at the building, then demanded to see Naru. Seeing as we have no choice but to obey, we led them to base, John carrying his own luggage while Bou-san assisting Mori-san with hers.

"Naru, here's John and another someone who wants to see you," Bou-san said with a sigh as we took our seats around the table. John gave us a nervous smile, which we all returned amiably. He's just too kind-looking to resist.

"Madoka," Naru said with a kind of forced patience. "Why are you here? I don't remember asking you to help."

"Yes," Mori-san said, "but your Mum called and sent me to babysit you two. Honestly… I feel as if I'm more of an assistant to you rather than a boss…" She rolled her eyes, and Naru turned his back on her haughtily.

"In that case, pray take a seat and be silent for the rest of the morning." Naru went to check the soundness of the monitors, and we soon disengaged ourselves from the subject of the case as to not spoil the morning.

"Wait, where's Eugene?" Mori-san asked.

"Upstairs," Naru replied vaguely.

"What's he doing there?"

"Dunno."

Mori-san frowned at Naru's back. "I'll talk to him."

"Better not do that."

"Why?" Mori-san looked puzzled.

"He's sick."

"_What_!" Mori-san shot out of the armchair where she was seated.

"Don't fuss, he's okay. He was just lightheaded after the channeling session that we had conducted last night."

"Strange, Gene's never felt exhausted after a session before," Mori-san mused.

"Oh, it was a long story," Yasuhara-san said with a laugh, patting the bandages wrapped around his forehead. "But I do think that Davis-san is great fun."

Naru sighed (_rather dolefully?_) at this. "Doesn't everybody?"

* * *

><p>We were all surprised when Gene went downstairs to base a few minutes later, impeccably dressed in a navy blue button-up shirt, blue argyle sweater vest, and black slacks. He still looked quite pale, but was otherwise dashing. I sighed to myself. Why did Naru and Gene have to look so fashionable…<p>

"True Brits never shed their skin, huh," Mori-san said dryly. "Anyway, I thought you were sick?" she added cheerfully.

"And I thought you were already back in England?" Gene said as cheerfully as she, and twice as sly. He certainly did not appear to me to be sick.

"Your Mum told me to stay and check on you guys."

Gene's face fell, making Mori-san flash her signature goofy peace sign at him. Halo. She's got a halo. "Huh? But we're not—!"

"Kids anymore? Yup, I know that," Mori-san snorted, and the miraculous halo of St. Madoka disappeared. "But your Mum doesn't, so there."

Gene flung himself on a vacant chair and stayed like that until Naru finally paid attention to him.

"I thought I told you to stay in your room and rest," he snapped, sharply.

"Noll, that kind of lifestyle is for cute kitties." Gene rolled his eyes. "And here's a news flash: I'm not a cat! Okay?" Smart-aleck.

"I. Don't. Care." Naru's voice was as steely as his twin's. It's amusing how they can be so alike, after all. "Go."

"I'm older. I shan't take orders from you." —petulantly.

"Ha, right. You're just five minutes older than me, Gene. Go."

"I'm still older!" Gene assumed an adamant expression (it made Bou-san almost crack), and surprisingly, "His Highness" just gave it up when he saw Gene's face.

"I'm not participating in this childish argument, Gene," he said scathingly. "Fine. Be stupid." He turned away. "And don't forget to construct a mental barrier before we go."

Gene's scowl finally broke and he laughed. "Score!" he declared enthusiastically, making us all smile.

* * *

><p><em>9:56 pm.<em>We decided to do the exorcism phase little by little, when the kids are well already in bed.

"_Naumaku sanmanda bazaradan kan._"

We were in the base room, watching Bou-san, who was dressed in the traditional black clothing of the monks in Mt. Koya, on the monitors as he began his exorcism ritual in the haunted lavatory.

"_On habahaba kiuta sabasaba kitsudokan…_"

The two mediums of SPR were nowhere to be found, since both were watching separate locations. Masako was stationed in the dining hall, while Gene was positioned in the play room. The cameras were also focused there, so it was easy to track their progress. Gene was looking restless as he paced around, while Masako was just her usual calm self. From the look in Naru's eye, I knew that the behavior of our mediums were giving something away: That the still-unnamed dining hall ghost was apparently laying low tonight, while Gene was feeling the first stirrings of the violent Juliet.

"_On data gatonaubebaya sowaka…_"

"Lin," Naru was murmuring with a tense expression, "check the temperature in Bou-san's location."

"Normal."

"Dining hall."

"Comparatively normal."

"Playroom."

Lin-san let out a hiss. "Temperature dropped four degrees."

Naru frowned. "As usual… Gene is very accurate."

Gene stopped after a while, then resumed his pacing. Ayako, however, noticed something.

"Hey, what's with Masako?"

We all turned to look at the monitors. Masako had fallen on her knees, her head bowed as she kept still.

"I'm not liking this any one bit," John said quietly. "They might have sprung up something for us…"

"Lin."

"Temperature in the dining hall dropped five degrees."

Naru looked as if he had been expecting this. "Matsuzaki-san, John, please go. Matsuzaki-san, you're assigned in the dining hall. John, playroom. Hurry."

"Another drop in temperature in the playroom," Lin reported. "Another four degrees."

Gene was walking more briskly around the room, then stood stock-still, his eyes blank as he suddenly barged out of the room.

"What's that idiot _doing_?" Naru hissed, face paling as he watched Gene go out quite suddenly. I immediately knew from his expression that this wasn't part of the plan.

"I have a bad feeling about this, Naru," Lin-san muttered.

"_On batamarinau habaya sowaka,_" Bou-san continued in the monitor that was stationed to the lavatory. Meanwhile, in the playroom, John had already strolled in, and after looking confused and undecided after seeing no one in the room, he regained his usual calm poise and started to perform his exorcism ritual.

"_Priinceps gloriosissime cælestis militiæ, sancte Michaël Archangele, defende nos in prælio et colluctatione, quæ nobis adversus principes et potestates, adversus mundi rectores tenebrarum harum…_"

"I've never heard him utter those words before," I told Naru. "What language is that?"

"Latin," he replied simply, still casting anxious eyes at the direction of the monitor which was connected to the playroom's infrared camera. The temperature was steadily dropping.

"_…Contra spiritualia nequitiæ, in cælestibusus. Veni in auxilium hominum, quos Deus creavit inexterminabiles, et ad imaginem similitudinis suæ fecit, et a tyrannide diaboli emit pretio magno._"

"Should I look for that idiot?" Naru said quietly to Lin-san.

"Don't do anything rash yet."

"_In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, Amen,_" John was saying, drawing the sign of the Cross in the air with an outstretched palm, while Bou-san, who was in the lavatory, was chanting, "_On bazara magini harachi hataya… sowaka!_" Their voices melded together, making a weird effect.

Naru was getting more restless, and his body language made no move to conceal the fact. "Madoka, hand me…" Naru cast around the room with a searching look, until he espied his prize: Gene's sweater vest, which lay discarded on the armchair. "_That_."

"—_In the beginning was the Word_…" John was beginning to read out loud, and I noticed that his rosary was entwined around his right hand. "…_and the Word_—"

"_Quickly_!" Naru snapped impatiently, making Mori-san throw the sweater to him with a grudging expression. Naru caught it gracefully and held it for the space of two heartbeats before casting it aside with a serious look in his face.

"Lin," Naru declared suddenly. "Let's go. Madoka, Yasuhara-san, Mai, take charge of the monitors. Contact Lin immediately when there's a new—"

"I'm going!" I told Naru, narrowing my eyes.

"No, it's too dangerous," Naru snarled, but I persisted.

"It's better to have two people by your side," I was insisting, when—

"Shibuya-san!" Takahashi-san, the head of the orphanage, suddenly burst into the room, her eyes huge. "It's started again…"

"What?" Naru said automatically, but before the lady could answer, we heard the first strains of the haunting melody.

"That piano sounds that we were talking about…" Takahashi-san said. "But this… it's seven hours too early…"

"Oliver!" Mori-san suddenly called, her jaw dropping as she stared at the monitors. We saw what was visibly alarming.

The monitor that was supposed to be showing the playroom was now suddenly focused on something dark that had obscured the view of the camera, making everyone in the room freeze.

Suddenly, the darkness stirred, and I realized that what we were staring at was the back of someone's head. The head turned around, and I let out a horrified gasp when it finally showed its face.

"_Intriganten…!_"

The bloodshot eyes, the lips bared in an enraged smirk, showing slowly rotting teeth. I recognized her, even as it showed features of extreme rage. It was the deteriorating face of the formerly beautiful Julchen.

I stole a glance at Naru to see what his reaction was, and saw him looking at Takahashi-san with an odd, thoughtful look on his face.

He glanced at me as if he knew that I was watching him. "Okay. You're coming with us."

* * *

><p>"<em>Gene!<em>" I called. There was no answer.

"Where is he?" Naru asked in a highly agitated tone, keen blue eyes searching the darkness for his twin.

We had searched every inch of the building to find the room that Naru saw in his psychometric vision earlier when he touched Gene's sweater, and having found that room yet still seeing no sign of Naru's flamboyant twin, we quickly concluded that he was outside. The piano music had long stopped since, and Naru was already impatient.

"I should've realized that he had left his location already when the music stopped," Naru said with a tinge of irritation as we broke out into the mild night air, and I guessed that he was frustrated.

"But… then, it's Gene who played the piano this time?"

"Yes. He memorized the piece the first time he heard it in his mind."

"He can play the piano—?"

Naru looked away. "Kaa-san taught him."

"By 'kaa-san', you meant—"

Naru just nodded, and Lin-san, seeing the situation at hand, promptly saved him the expense of explaining.

"Taniyama-san, put it this way," Lin-san said quickly and quietly. "If Naru is proficient in the sciences and logics, Gene is as gifted when it comes to music. Most clairaudients have very refined sense of hearing, and most of them specialize in playing musical instruments. in Gene's case, he has mastered a total of fifteen different instruments in just the span of seventeen years."

"Amazing…"

"Lin," Naru interrupted, his face showing a kind of tired, soulful beauty, and Lin-san watched him attentively. "Find him. Please."

He said 'please'.

Our Chinese curse-breaker nodded uneasily at the quiet request and whistled shrilly, and I felt rather than seen it as something whizzed past me in a tremendously high speed.

"Still as troublesome as always, Gene," Lin-san said grimly. "For now, in this darkness, we can do nothing but wait."

"It's going to rain," I noticed with a slight tinge of worry when I felt the heavy feeling in the air. "Gene might get even worse…"

Naru gazed at me with a guarded look. "Don't worry. Gene could take care of himself." And even with the usual "I'm-lording-it-over-you" tone, I could have sworn that there was something reassuring me quietly in his voice.

"But what did he mean when he played the piano?" I asked quietly. "And wait… where was the piano located?" I was more confused than ever.

"I'm sure he'll tell us himself," he said calmly.

I felt Naru's smoldering blue gaze on my face as the first drops hit our faces. And for the second time in my life, I realized that Naru, even with his many smarts and his adult ways, is still in many ways a seventeen-year-old boy as we both stood in that dark rain, all other presences forgotten as we both thought of one of the persons who brought all of this about.

* * *

><p>Gene was suddenly rushing along tall grass, and he immediately knew that he was in the vacant lot behind the orphanage. How the heck he came to be in there, he had no idea, but his mind had been a blank a few minutes after the beginning of the exorcism. And now, his heightened sense of hearing was suddenly hampering him, the agonized groans of the spirits attracted to him overwhelming his ability to think straight and making it hard to determine if he had already shaken off the feeling that someone was on his track.<p>

He heard the rustle of grass behind him, then in front of him.

_I'm losing my touch, Mum_, he thought with a wry mental laugh._ I should quit from the football team back in Cambridge soon after this… But hell, not even the best guy in the track-and-field team can outrun this someone! —Or maybe I was just _really_ sick. _

_Not that I'll admit that to myself, Noll! _

Diversionary tactics. _Let's go! _

Gene banked into a hard left and continued to sprint for his sanity, his pupils almost as tiny as pinpricks as he slowly ran out of breath.

"…!"

He cursed his bad luck as he slipped because of the sudden change of terrain. From wet soil, the ground became scattered with round stones. Gene lay with his cheek pressed on the ground, his breath coming in large gasps and his heart beating itself to death as adrenaline coursed through his body.

A rustle. Gene couldn't tell where it came from—especially at his mentally-deaf state.

"You insufferable _medium_!"

At the outraged shriek, spoken in Japanese, Gene looked up with shock and stared into the ghostly face of Julchen, who was smiling down at him like a malignant sort of fairy.

Gene was sure that he was going to die a horrible death at this instant.

_Where is Noll when you need him? Bollocks… _

His eyes widened, as Juliet suddenly swooped through him. The rush of memories overwhelmed his sensitive senses, making him gasp as he felt like as if he was suddenly doused with ice water.

_"I'll kill you!" "I don't like her, _Vati_." "You're like Juliet." "But wouldn't we be happier without anyone else, _Vati_?" "I'll kill you, Julia!" "Julchen?" "_Julchen_!" "You're a selfish brat, Julia. You know I like him, and then you go and—!" "I'm sorry, Juliet, but I love him!" "I'll _kill_ you!" _

"I'll _kill_you!"

The last statement had been a scream from the spirit, but the medium's eyelids were already sliding shut over brilliant blue eyes as fatigue caught up with his mentally-tired state.

He never heard the high shrill sound as something flew past him at an alarming speed. One of Lin's shiki.

"_Sie—!_" was the angry screech.

* * *

><p>At the same time, Masako finally opened her eyes and stared up into Ayako's face. The miko was looking extremely worried as she abandoned the exorcism to kneel beside the medium.<p>

"Masako, are you al—"

"_You've got it all wrong._" Masako's dark eyes were blank and her voice raspy, as if she hadn't drunk for a long time.

"What do you mean?" Ayako frowned confusedly.

"_She's not Juliet._"

Ayako felt as if an ice cube dropped into her stomach at the medium's certainty.

"What?"

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **

Was it just me, or would Gene look really good in a Cambridge English football uniform? :))

Waka waka~

* * *

><p><strong>Please do review!<strong>


	8. Interlude

_**A Tale of Two Brothers**_

* * *

><p><strong>IMPORTANT<strong>! Read this! DL, DR!

**Pairings**: NaruMai. My one and only Ghost Hunt OTP.

**Genres**: Supernatural & Romance

**Disclaimer**: I will never own Ghost Hunt, 'kay? All rights reserved by all concerned parties.

* * *

><p><strong><em>File 8:<em>**  
><em>Interlude<em>

* * *

><p><em>When Gene was very young, his mother would often call him to her and sing in a beautiful voice. Gene loved to hear his mother sing. It made him feel comfortable and secure inside. It was when he can say that he was "at home".<em>

_"Gene, do you see the statue over there?"_

_"Yeah…"_

_"It's Mama Mary. She's the mother of Jesus."_

_"She's very pretty. But not as pretty as you."_

_His mother would laugh and pat him on the head. "So you think that I'm pretty?"_

_A silence. Then six-year-old Gene would gravely declare, "When I grow up, I'm going to marry someone like you."_

_"Such a precocious chick!" Kaa-san would say. And then they would leave the church after praying, and every Sunday, Gene would always ask the same thing of God: that he grow up quickly so that he can protect Mama and her sweet singing voice._

_Of course, a year after, that was when the tragedy struck._

_The disaster had been tragic—the worst earthquake that had been recorded for the decade this side of the United States. Suddenly, families disappeared, mothers were left childless, husbands left widowers, and children became orphans. And Gene became one of them, thinking he was alone in the world as he lay on a bed in one of the hospital wards, his blue eyes vacant and faraway as he listened to the whispers of people that he can't see except for orbs of light that suddenly became visible to him after the trauma, more pronounced, more hauntingly enchanting._

_God had twisted his prayers around. He hadn't been able to protect his mother, so he was forced to quickly grow up._

_At least, that was what Gene thinks._

_"Gene?" A familiar voice. Gene turned his face slightly to the doorway, his head aching, his heart standing still as he realized who it was._

_"Noll." He was alive, the only fragment from his family, his other half. And then, Gene realized that he was never alone, the first smile in a long while breaking out from his tired face._

_"Noll…"_

* * *

><p><em>Maybe that's what addicted Gene to music. The bitter reality of responsibility at being left without parents, with only his twin brother left by his side. But Gene would rather let the rest of his family die a thousand painful deaths than lose Noll, and he knew that Noll felt the same.<em>

_"It would be cruel to separate the twins from each other."_

_That was what Gene first heard one morning as he proceeded on his way to the library in the orphanage where they were left by the local government after their recovery. He was looking for Noll, since he knew that that was where his twin usually holed himself up to bury his nose in books. Noll had been a naturally bookish child, but this amount of reading was an attempt to fill up the empty void that was in his chest. Gene understood his twin. That was the feeling that he had, which he kept covered up by playing the piano in the chapel a thousand times every afternoon._

_And now, as he crossed the last hallway in order to finally go in the library, he heard her say it._

_"It would be cruel to separate the twins from each other."_

_It came from a young nun, one of the women who ran the orphanage. The other was a blonde woman, whom Gene didn't recognize._

_Maybe another prospective foster parent._

_"But I don't think I can afford to take care of two," the blonde said. "My husband is always at work, and I only wanted one son to bring up… and I think Martin has taken a liking to him. He is an uncommonly handsome fellow, after all."_

_"That he is. But Noll is a stubborn one. You'd want his twin better."_

_"Noll is his name?" But Gene didn't want to hear the conversation any longer than was necessary. He hurried to the library, upset over the talk that he had just overheard._

_He found Noll in his usual spot: the very back of the library, where they kept all the encyclopedias and atlases. Gene's heart nearly stopped when he saw a dark-haired man with spectacles beside his stoic brother, seemingly attempting to start a conversation with Noll. Noll, however, looked faintly uninterested. That sparked Gene's hope. Just a bit, though._

_"Noll!" he gasped as he finally reached the table, his little face displaying all the childish signs of dislike at the man. "Who's that?"_

_Noll squinted at Gene and turned back into the book that he was perusing. Gene noticed with great anxiety that it was a book about physics. Maybe that's why this man was apparently so interested in his brother._

_"I dunno." —flatly._

_The man glanced at Gene with an incredulous smile. "You didn't tell me that you've got a twin, Noll," he told Noll, making Gene scowl._

_"You didn't ask," Noll said shortly. Gene's inner spirit was dancing at Noll's subtle resistance._

_"Are you here to adopt Noll?" Gene asked the man abruptly. He was usually more docile compared to Noll's abrupt mood swings, but he can't help but snap._

_"Well, if he wants to be adopted," the man said with a friendly laugh, one that Gene didn't trust even with its sincerity. "I think you don't want to get separated with him?"_

_"Obviously," Gene retorted._

_"Well, young man, my name is Martin Davis, and I'm a scientist," was the man's reply, holding out a large hand to the seven-year-old._

_"Gene," the boy replied, cautiously taking the hand offered to him and shaking hands._

_"Well, Gene, let me make you a deal, all right?" Martin said, his smile widening when Gene looked apprehensive. "If you stop scowling at me"—Gene looked flabbergasted—"I will adopt both of you."_

_"You will?" Gene dropped the scowl so suddenly that Martin laughed._

_"Upon my honor as a British gentleman, kid."_

_The blonde woman and the nun suddenly entered the library, the sound of their approach making Gene turn around to stare at them._

_"So this is Gene?" the blonde woman looked at Gene with a wondering look. "They look so alike…"_

_"Hello," Gene attempted to smile._

_"Luella, what if we adopt these two?" Martin said with a grin._

_"Two? But Martin…" Luella was looking as if she was conflicted._

_"Come on, dear," Martin said wheedlingly. "They're both very intelligent—I can see it in their eyes. And it's better to have two smart kids than just one, right? They can both help you around the house when I'm not around."_

_"I—I guess that wouldn't…" Luella finally relented. "Alright. We'll adopt both of them, sister."_

_And from then on, Gene and Noll's new life began. Gene became Eugene J.A. Davis, while Noll became Oliver E.C. Davis. Eugene meant "well-born," while Oliver meant "of the olive tree," or wise. It was as if Luella and Martin thought that changing their names would mean erasing their pasts completely._

* * *

><p><em>If Luella thought that adopting two boys in her family was trouble already, then what she found out next about the twins was already freaking her out.<em>

_"For the third time, there is no one whispering in your ear, Eugene Davis!" Luella told the elder of the two boys with a severe tone, frustration threatening to overflow. "Do you understand? There is no one!"_

_"But I can hear him!" Gene persisted enthusiastically, pointing at a spot behind Luella as he grinned. "Look, he's telling me to come and play!"_

_"Oh, God," Luella grumbled to Martin that same evening, as the twins were ushered off to bed. "Eugene believes that there's a boy in our garden telling him to play with him. I don't know, but…"_

_Martin frowned thoughtfully. "That can't be a spirit, can it?"_

_"Martin!" Luella sighed. "How many times will I have to tell you to stop confusing everything for spirits and poltergeists? Tch, your work at SPR is really rubbing off of you…"_

_The two Davises looked up as a sound of someone descending the stairs leading into the living room introduced Noll, who had suddenly went down with grave blue eyes._

_"Noll, what are you still doing awake?" Luella asked him in a motherly tone. Noll scowled._

_"Gene's keeping me up. He's talking to somebody by the window."_

_"What?" The two parents exchanged looks, Luella's particularly exasperated._

_"Okay, I'm going up to talk to him," Luella said firmly, when to their surprise, ten-year-old Noll shook his head quite firmly._

_"Please don't bother. I'm quite used to it. He always hears voices in the orphanage. Excuse me while I get that book. I forgot to take it with me." And as a stunned Luella and Martin looked on, Noll retrieved his copy of The Valley of Fear from the coffee table and went back upstairs, the muffled sounds of his slippers hitting the carpeted steps serving as the only noises._

* * *

><p><em>The second discovery, however, occurred two years later.<em>

_"I said I don't want to go, Gene. Why do you have to insist?"_

_"Noll, you're getting too lonely in this house."_

_"Whose fault is that?" Twelve-year-old Noll snapped, blue eyes breaking out of their cool shell and looking furious. "I'm not the one who's always away, you know! I'm not the one who's always leaving his brother behind!"_

_"Well, it's not my fault if you're a stuck-up idiot scientist who can never make any friends except with books!"_

_Noll's eyes flashed dangerously, and Gene found himself flung backward by an invisible force smack onto the wall, wincing as something in his right arm snapped._

_"Take that back!" Noll yelled._

_Luella had heard the sound of Gene colliding with the wall, and had hurried to find the twins' room an utter mess—the mirror was shattered, the curtains ripped from their rods, and the beds overturned._

_"What is happening here?" Luella said with a shocked voice, and Gene shakily stood up and shouted at his angry brother—_

_"I'm never gonna take that back! That's true, and you know it!"_

_Noll shook and said in cold, flawless Japanese—_

_"Why do people always think that you're so bloody better, Gene?"_

_And with that cold statement, Noll left the room with a dignified air, leaving utter chaos in his wake. Luella watched with her own two eyes as a chair even attempted to drag itself after Noll with nothing supporting it._

_Gene was wide-eyed with sudden guilt. "Noll!"_

_That was the first and only serious argument that the twins ever had in the Davises' house._

* * *

><p><em>When Martin returned home and found out what happened from Luella at dinner, he was strangely interested in his wife's description of the twins' bedroom after the argument. When Luella showed him the room and the mess within, Martin had one question to ask.<em>

_"Which of the two kids had been more upset?"_

_"Gene was upset, himself, but I think Noll was angrier than him. I hadn't seen him fly into a rage like that before, Martin. If Gene was the one who had lost his temper, I might have understood because he's more impulsive, but… Martin, look at the damage… and Noll even managed to break Gene's arm…!"_

_"Luella, I think I know what caused this…" Martin looked so excited that Luella frowned._

_"What?"_

_"This magnitude of damage done in a room where an argument is going on? Hon, this is poltergeist activity! And a strong one at that!" Martin was grinning as if he was the first man on the moon. "Wait till the guys at work hear this…"_

_"Wait. Mart. Did you understand the situation? They're our sons!" Luella said angrily. "I will not have someone from SPR sniffing around at them just because you told them about this incident!"_

_Martin deflated at Luella's anger. "Sorry. Okay, I won't." Then he looked around. "By the way, where are the boys?"_

_"Noll's sleeping in the guest room. He must have tired himself out. Gene's waiting for him to wake up."_

_Well, how the twins readily made up after that was beyond Luella's ability to find out, and right afterwards, Noll made a promise that he'll never attempt to break another bone in Gene's body ever again. That is, if he could help it._

* * *

><p><em>Fifteen-year-old Oliver Davis swiftly strolled out of his physics classroom and to the nearest bathroom, shrugging out of his dark blue sweater as Eugene entered noiselessly behind him, similarly stripping off his red hoodie. They swapped the particular pieces of clothing that they had removed and put them on. Then Gene frowned at Noll.<em>

_"I can't believe I'm doing this again."_

_"Please just do this for me," Noll said firmly, blue eyes meeting Gene's. "I have to run up at the college and speak to Professor—"_

_"Yeah, yeah, I know, you're going to sneak into the college again," Gene said, rolling his eyes. "Okay, Operation Switch-Out is on. Don't forget to smile and answer to 'Gene', alright?"_

_"And don't forget to answer to my name," Noll returned. "And greet Mr. Williams first if necessary. Politely, mind you."_

_"But I hate Williams! And he hates my guts too!"_

_"Well, you're Oliver Davis now, so he now likes you," Noll said with a smirk, and assuming their respective roles, Noll put on an easy smile and Gene turned his mouth down, even as laughter threatened to burst out of his throat as he saw the smile on Noll's face._

_"We're so out of character, I could have won an Oscar for this," Gene grumbled as they sat down for lunch._

_"Yeah," Noll whispered back, both of them feeling uncomfortable with each other's personalities as they began to eat. "Hey, what was the name of that annoying redheaded girl you're presently going out with?"_

_"Diane," Gene snapped, making Noll grin._

_"I hope I don't get to bump on her," Noll said with a sigh. "She seems like a mouthful of nagging."_

_"Noll, you're giving me the impression that you actually liked the idea of remaining a NGSB until death, you know that?" Gene said with a melodramatic sigh._

_"NG—what?"_

_"N-G-S-B. No girlfriend since birth," Gene said cheekily and making Noll poke him on the shoulder, hard._

_"Oliver!" someone called._

_Gene paled at the sight of the intruder. "Oh great. Just freakin' great."_

_Noll kicked Gene's leg under the table to remind him to greet their Trigonometry teacher._

_"Er—uh, Mr. Williams?" Gene said tonelessly, Noll smiling at his twin's sudden shift into an extremely convincing blank expression. "What can I do for you?"_

_"Well, about that test that you aced the other day…"_

_Gene nodded coolly and proceeded to pretend to listen attentively, Noll's telepathic messages telling him the appropriate answers at the right instants. All in all, Williams did not suspect that he was talking to the wrong twin._

_As he rose to leave, though, the teacher turned to Noll with a slight frown, making Noll's leg twitch nervously against Gene's._

_Did he suspect, or—?_

_"And as for you, Eugene, your score on that last quiz was not bad, but certainly not impressive. I think you should have your brother teach you how to get your sines and cosines correct."_

_—Oh! Noll relaxed instantly, finding it amusing that he had never experienced incurring the wrath of any teacher before on the matter of his grades._

_"Will I be expecting a better performance on you this week?" Williams put the question, putting Noll on guard immediately._

_He opted to smiled blandly at Williams. "I'll be working with Noll on it, sir."_

_Gene wondered if his smile really was that sappy as Noll had portrayed it, or what. He'll have to check with the mirror in his bathroom later._

_"Well, I'll be off." And with a last smile at Gene, Mr. Williams strolled away._

_Gene and Noll let out relieved sighs, and Gene began sniggering like crazy._

_"Hey, shut it. People will notice you."_

_"Sorry…" Gene hid his face in his handkerchief and when he emerged from it, he was blank-faced again. "But, you know? I think that was the first time ever that a Math teacher was happy to talk to me." He grinned. "Best experience of my life, bro."_

_"You're welcome," Noll said sarcastically, and with a sigh, he pushed his plate back. "I'm out."_

_"Hey, what's your next class?" Gene asked hopefully._

_"Religion, then PE. Don't impress Mr. Evans so much, or I'll have your head once he gets all smiley on me next week." Noll picked up his bag and stalked off, leaving Gene to get up and sigh dolefully over his hardships._

_"I see," he sighed into his handkerchief. "So he's dumping his worst subjects on me, huh?"_

* * *

><p><em>Work. Work. Work.<em>

_Professor Oliver Everett C. Davis, Senior Parapsychologist, is now his full name and title. Gene can't decide for himself if he was proud of Noll's accomplishments, or just happy, or frustrated, or worried, or a bit of everything. It's just that… it seemed to him as if Noll just lived half his life to work for SPR, his irregular working hours distancing them more from each other as Eugene decided to leave his brother be and to finally get his own life._

_Gene strolled up to a store window in downtown London, finding himself as gloomy as the overcast weather, having performed a séance just a while ago in Mrs. Eliza Stafford's house. The séance was simple, the poor widow only wanting to ask what her husband wants to tell them by leaving a cryptic message in the breast pocket of his tuxedo, and Gene had generously refused the payment afterwards. And now he was heading towards the street where the headquarters of the prestigious Royal Society for Psychical Research stood, its faded stone structure giving a sense of regal stateliness to the agency residing inside._

_Gene entered the main lobby with an easy catlike grace, his usual smile adorning his lips as he walked up to the front desk and asked the receptionist, "Is Professor Oliver Davis in?"_

_He couldn't have used "Professor Davis" instead, since that would call Martin and not Noll. The receptionist looked up at Gene's face with a confused look. Apparently deciding that he wasn't joking, she settled for a highly blushing stutter of "N-no."_

_"Oh," Gene said, when a sudden draft of moist English air suddenly danced in as someone opened the door impatiently and strolled in._

_"Miss Paige, did anyone leave me something?" Noll's accent was still stubbornly American, even after nine-odd years' separation from the States (comically, Luella gave up trying to teach them British English when Gene and Noll steadfastly pronounced "tomato" as "to-may-to", having never liked anyone trying to tell them what to do). Gene turned around as his younger brother stood beside him, a scowl on his face as he looked down at the seated receptionist, who quickly shook her head and stared at them two as if they were the biggest oddities that she had met in the planet. And Gene thought with a mental laugh that maybe she was right._

_Noll stared with a deadpan expression at Gene. "And what are you doing here?"_

_"Well, I didn't have an umbrella, I was hoping to pass the rain here," Gene lied smoothly, not wanting to be scorned for his real reason. Noll looked unconvinced, but otherwise gestured to the elevator and said, "Let's go to my office and have some tea. You look tired."_

_"Thanks." Gene was rather pleased at the gesture of worry, however small it was._

_Noll's office was just across the hall from the office of one Koujou Lin, a Chinese by the looks of him._

_"Good afternoon," Noll greeted Lin awkwardly._

_Lin just gave them a quick nod and a weird look as he passed them the moment they made their way to Noll's office._

_"Friendly guy," Gene chose to remark sarcastically, gesturing at Lin's retreating back. Noll sighed._

_"We're both under the fieldwork group, but he's from the technical division. I'm a member of the theoretical division, so I don't think I can tell you much about him," was Noll's reply as they entered the office. "I do know that Lin has a strange dislike for anyone of Japanese descent, and since Martin must have told most of SPR by now that we were adopted and were Japanese ethnically, it'd be natural for him to go out of his way to avoid me during work. Whatever, I don't care anyways."_

_Gene felt a bit irked and a bit confused at hearing about Lin's point of view in life, but decided to keep quiet for the moment._

_"Who's your team leader then?"_

_"A Japanese psyresearcher. I'm still quite new, so I still don't know anything about her other than by her name, Professor Madoka Mori." Noll immediately slid his glasses on the instant he sat down, only pausing to gesture Gene to the teapot standing innocuously on the top of the books on his desk._

_"Help yourself to some tea. It should still be warm, I had just went out for a while."_

_Gene was rather amused by the sight of Noll's glasses, but decided to just pour himself some tea and watch his twin as he perused some files._

_The glasses perched on Noll's nose had been a recent addition to his face, bought by Martin directly after starting his work. Noll had always had weaker eyesight than Gene even as children, so it made sense that somehow, Martin would want Noll to wear glasses, at least just at work, so that the strain on his eyes will be somewhat reduced._

_"—What are you staring at?"_

_Gene snapped out of his reverie to see Noll staring crossly back at him, his blue eyes framed with black rims._

_"Nothing. Just admiring your, uh, glasses. They make you look smarter…"_

_"Really?" Noll said with a thoughtful look._

_"Yup." Gene smiled and sipped at his tea. Plain, since there was no room for a milk jug or something, and Noll hated bothering to cut lemons just to flavor his tea, but the warm tea was still soothing to his tongue as he drank it all. He wasn't particularly fond of tea, but it seemed nice to have something warm as he stared out of the window to watch the sheets of water pouring down the pane._

_Gene decided to make small talk to bide his time. "So, Professor, what's 'theoretical fieldwork'?"_

_"Madoka told me that it was hard to explain, but she told me that a parapsychological fieldwork is called a 'ghost hunt' in layman's terms."_

_"I see."_

_Silence fell._

_Gene waited for a few more moments of agonized patience before bursting out—_

_"Noll, don't tell me you've forgotten."_

_"What?" Noll asked blankly._

_Gene wanted to laugh out loud. He had forgotten._

_"Well, the real reason why I dropped in is," Gene pulled out a rectangular package out from his backpack, "to wish you a happy birthday."_

_Noll looked confused. "Is it the nineteenth today?"_

_"I thought so," Gene put on a mock pout and handed Noll the parcel. "Here. I know you already know what it is. It's—"_

_"A book," they said at the same time, and Gene's laugh was so infectious that it even made Noll smile grudgingly._

_"Thanks. Should I treat you to dinner?" Noll asked lightly._

_"Don't bother, Luella's making dinner tonight. And making you smile is a gift already, you know." Gene put on his sincerest face._

_"That's the cheesiest line you've ever thrown at me," Noll mused, fingers toying with the package. "Can I open it now?"_

_"Go on," Gene said with a smile._

_"The Parapsychology Battlefield," Noll read the title out loud. "Hm, are you falling in with me over this SPR thing? I thought you hadn't approved of it before."_

_"Well, what kind of elder brother will I be if I didn't support you?" Gene declared as he watched Noll open the book and run his fingers over the fresh pages. "Noll, smile for me again."_

_"Why would I do that?"_

_"'Cause it's my birthday too, git!" Gene exclaimed with a pout, and Noll obliged him with a small smile._

_He was right. Noll reminded him so much of kaa-san when he does that. Kaa-san had that same strained, beautiful smile._

* * *

><p><em>If only everything could be like this forever, just him and Noll, with nothing to worry about, then Gene would have told God that it was quits with whatever tragedies the heavens had plied upon them in the past.<em>

_But it wasn't that simple. Noll was Noll, and Gene was Gene. Once one of them decided upon something, the other would certainly take the other direction. And just as Gene had decided that he was contented with their life in Cambridge, Noll decided that it was time to expand his horizons. London was just too small for Oliver Davis's intelligence, and he had set his sights on Japan._

_The land of their forefathers._

_"Why Japan?" Gene asked Noll for the umpteenth time that day, a despairing tone in his voice._

_"I convinced Martin and told him that I'm going to study curse techniques more extensively there."_

_"But the real reason?"_

_"Don't claw at my things," Noll admonished Gene when he attempted to open the suitcase, making the latter assume a doleful face. "I haven't told Martin, but I'm planning to research about our, ah, family tree." He sat down on his bed and thought deeply. "However, I haven't anything to start with in this search…"_

_"Don't tell me that you're planning to use the trial-and-error method to locate our grandparents," Gene said crossly. "That'd take a lot of time!"_

_Noll sighed. "Whatever you say. I don't have a bloody choice, you know."_

_"Can't you just stay here?" Gene mumbled._

_"I can't. I've wasted about half of my life without an inkling of who I really am. I can't waste another ten years of ignorance." Noll stuffed his coat in his smaller suitcase and zipped it shut. "And I'm sorry, but not even you can stop me."_

_Gene grabbed a pillow from Noll's bed and squashed it in an embrace. "I'll miss you. You're a heartless moron and an insensitive jerk, but I'll still miss you."_

_"I know." Noll smiled gently. "I will, too."_

* * *

><p><em>Gene knew that what he was doing right now was wrong. Out of the norm. A violation of his foster mother's trust. But he can't help but feel spurred on by his longing to see Noll's ice-blue eyes and rare smile again as he strode quickly to the restricted area of the airport, a coat slung on his arm and his luggage, consisting only of a few days' supply of clothes and a small picture frame, wherein an old photograph of two eleven-year-old twin boys nestled snugly behind the glass.<em>

_Gene took out the photograph from its frame when he was finally boarded and seated in the plane and surveyed it with an uncharacteristically serious expression, eyes traveling hungrily over the two boys, the smiling one dressed in a casual tee shirt and a dark orange hoodie jacket, and the scowling one dressed in a blue button-up shirt and a black sweater. Gene stared at the scowling boy's blue eyes, as if daring him to step out of the paper, and with a sigh, tucked the photo back in its frame._

_"Dōgenzaka, Tokyo," he reminded himself. "I'm finally going to see you again, Noll."_

_And he smiled as someone invisible whispered into his ear, "Good luck."_

_"Thank you," he whispered back, and the orb of light that only he can see flew out through the window and disappeared—_

* * *

><p>Gene's eyelids fluttered from his deep sleep as he felt someone grab him on the shoulders and hold him steady.<p>

"Gene—? _Gene_!"

Noll's voice was sunk in a whisper so gentle that Gene felt a smile come over his lips as he half-opened his eyes and looked up. The rain had slowed into a steady drizzle.

"Noll?"

"I'm here," Oliver told him softly. "I'm not leaving you."

"Neither will I, Noll," Gene said with a shaky laugh, and opened his eyes fully. "But I need to tell you something, though."

"What?"

Gene's eyes were dyed black. "I think we're have to think up of something different. We're back to square one, 'cause Julchen's not Juliet Pfeiffer."

"What?" Noll demanded.

Gene stared at him unblinkingly, his right hand fisting into Noll's jacket as he steadied himself.

How redundant will the situation be?

"Her name is Julia. And… she's Juliet's younger twin." Gene's face was worried. "Noll, she wants to exact revenge on her sister."

* * *

><p>Madoka and Yasuhara was watching the monitors intently, when suddenly, Yasuhara frowned and pushed his glasses further up his nose to see the monitor that he was frowning at more clearly.<p>

"Ne, Mori-san, didn't you find it strange that Bou-san's location wasn't registering anything abnormal?"

"Should we tell Takigawa-san?" Madoka asked worriedly, and Yasuhara nodded as an answer.

"Put him on," Yasuhara told her, and putting on the headphones, he tuned in to the device in Bou-san's ear. "Hi, Takigawa-san!"

"Li—wait, shounen?" Yasuhara heard Bou-san's confused voice through the headphones, and smiled with relief.

"Um, Lin-san's not here, I'm in his place," Yasuhara said quickly. "Just ask no questions, cause I need to tell you this very quick. We just noticed that there's no sign of any spirit in that lavatory. The playroom and dining hall, however, are displaying temperature drops. Maybe you'd want to check out those locations just in case. I think Juliet has something in mind."

Bou-san was quiet for a while, before finally answering, "Got you, kid. I think someone's been blowing smoke in our faces."

* * *

><p>We all rushed back to base in a great hurry, Lin-san half-supporting Gene as he dazedly stood back up.<p>

"Alright?" I asked him.

"Never been better," was his cheerful reply.

"I'll just pretend that I took your word for that," Naru said dryly as we hurried back through the halting chorus of the rain.

"Hear, hear."

The base was silent when we came back. Mori-san and Yasuhara-san were still watching the monitors intently, while Yasuhara-san was wearing Lin-san's headphones.

"What were you guys doing?" Naru said sharply, making Mori-san turn around in apparent relief.

"Oh, thank goodness!" she exclaimed in perfect English, then caught herself. "I'm sorry. Eh… I was just glad that you guys are finally here…" She eyed Gene's mud-splattered shirt and the knees of Naru's slacks, which were as muddy, with a critical glare. "Where did you come from?"

"No matter," Naru said shortly. "What was happening?"

"Well, we were just telling Takigawa-san to hurry to the other two locations and try to see if they need help. Hara-san is still down." Mori-san watched the monitors worriedly. "And John was knocked out cold. We just noticed."

I did see the black form crumpled on the carpeted floor on the monitor overlooking the playroom, which was unmistakably John. I was shaken. John had never failed in the middle of an exorcism before.

_Ra ra rin ra ra._

The piano notes hung in the air, making us look around with a horrific tremor. Gene was grimacing, while Naru held an ice-cold look in his eyes.

Naru's head snapped up. "Gene, lead us to the origin of that damned sound. Madoka, stay here. Yasuhara-san, assist Hara-san and Matsuzaki-san in getting back to base."

Gene managed a weak smile as he listened to his twin dish out his instructions. "This is the most fun that I had in an investigation for a long while, Noll."

Naru sighed. "Everything is fun to you, though…" Then he crossed his arms. "Lead."

"Roger!" Gene said with a comical salute, and we trooped silently out. I was sincerely doubting the decision to make Gene into some sort of bomb-sniffing dog, but didn't really voice it out loud.

"Mai, walk faster," Naru snapped at me. I noticed that I had been staring blankly at them two.

"Yes, sir," I snapped back, and hurried up to catch up with them. Can't he even tell me that in a nicer way or something…

But this is Naru we're talking about, you know.

Man, I just realized something. If some catastrophic accident by nature happened and Gene and I got married, wouldn't I be this guy's sister?*

Gene stole an amused look at me and I understood. He was listening to my thoughts, the creep.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:**

*Readers of the last novel of the Evil Spirit series should recognize this line. I'll say this, though: Ono Fuyumi really is a terrifyingly good writer.

Next file, Naru and Gene demonstrate how powerful Naru can be with Gene's help. Go, Naru Kick~

:D Stay tuned, dudes an' dudettes.

* * *

><p><strong>Please do review!<strong>

And I had repeated that for the last seven chapters now… You guys ARE so stubborn (sweatdrops) AND I CAN SEE THOSE HITS. If I can just wring a review out from your cold hearts…! teehee.

Thank you to **Cremateme**,** BlueEyedCat95**,** Lioness Of the fire**,** Yewberry Noon**,** Monica Moss**,** Boat**,** bbhelen3162 **and **melodyann75** for the lovely reviews! Keeps my spirits up every time! Also, a big thank you to those who've alerted on my story! :))

_Notes_:

This was registered under _Kazuya S./Naru_ and _Eugene D./Gene_ because I was trying to focus on their fraternal relationship, with the NaruMaiGene love triangle falling in _second_ priority. I hope that clears confusion?

And most Catholic exorcist prayers are actually done in Latin, if there are non-Catholics reading this. That's why I made John pray in Latin. It sounds really holy-ish in a real mass (I attend novenas for Mama Mary every year, and in the end the priest says a little Latin blessing over the people)… anyway! :D

And I think I can afford to write for '_Sounds of Silence_' after this story gets a conclusion! :))

'_A Tale of Two Brothers_' was really supposed to be a ten-chapter story, but I think we're going to exceed the number a bit… (another sweatdrop)

Wait for the next chapter!


	9. Kazuya

_**A Tale of Two Brothers**_

* * *

><p><strong>IMPORTANT<strong>! Read this! DL, DR!

**Pairings**: NaruMai. My one and only Ghost Hunt OTP.

**Genres**: Supernatural & Romance

**Disclaimer**: I will never own Ghost Hunt, 'kay? All rights reserved by all concerned parties.

* * *

><p><strong><em>File 9.1:<em>**  
><em>Kazuya<em>

* * *

><p>Gene casually strolled down the mazy corridors of the building, his face betraying nothing but concentration as he picked his way. Naru was absently following his brother, brow furrowed as he thought. Lin-san was as silent as usual, and kept switching his glances between the twins. As for myself, I just fixed my mind on the haunting music, puzzling out the cryptic message that Gene had told us. She's not Juliet? Then…<p>

"We're here," Gene's quiet voice broke the silence, and we all looked at each other. The corridor was blocked with a dead end.

Naru knocked on the wall, and I heard a faintly echoing sound.

Wood!

Gene and Naru exchanged significant looks, and to my utter surprise, Naru just recklessly stepped back and launched a swift kick that tore down the lower portion of the wall.

Gene grinned. "You should try out for next football season, Noll! If you do, Cambridge could totally _flatten_ Oxford—"

"Shut up." Naru gingerly pulled the broken pieces of wood away from the opening that he had made and ducked in. Gene flashed me an exasperated look.

"With brothers like that, I don't need any more sarcasm," he said with a sigh.

Hehe.

Naru's voice filtered through the wall. "I heard that, Gene. Instead of wasting time to talk to my assistant, will you just shut up and follow me? We haven't all day."

What a jerk. But all of you know that already.

We took turns crawling through the opening, and when I straightened out and took the sight in, I gasped.

We were standing in a completely different world. The floor was covered in a dusty red carpet, oil portraits adorned the walls, which were papered with a blackened purple, and the chandelier that hung above our heads was made of crystal. It was obvious that this was…

This was the house—no, _mansion_—where the Pfeiffers had lived previously.

"Where are we?"

"This is a closed-off section," Gene murmured, his voice low as not to graze upon the almost sacred silence of the place. "I think this is the only parts left of the original mansion before it was burned down."

"I see." Naru looked around, and I can almost see his eyes noting everything of importance to him. "Shall we?"

"Please," Gene said with a cheerful yet serious look, and we proceeded to walk down the spacious hall.

"It has a strangely ominous look," I whispered to Gene, and he smiled at me.

"Please keep up with us, Mai-san. As the youngest and least experienced member of the party, you're also going to be the most handicapped once you find yourself lost." And after taking my position beside Gene, we began our journey like that. I saw Naru glance sideways to look suspiciously at us, but otherwise kept quiet.

I felt as if I was strangely running away from something.

* * *

><p>Lin-san suddenly looked up as a strange beating sound of birds' wings shattered the silence, and dissolved into nothingness. We were standing in the end of the hallway where we've entered, where it branched into two split passageways.<p>

"What?" Naru asked Gene. "Right or left?"

"I can't tell," Gene told him, his expression conflicted. "The sound is everywhere now."

"I see," Naru muttered, and paced around. Gene turned to me and smiled tiredly.

"Let's play a game, Mai," he told me.

"Er, a game?"

"Yeah. Let's see who'll annoy Noll first, okay?"

"What kind of game is that?" I protested. "And why should I join you?"

"'Cause it's _fun_!" he exclaimed, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Then he suddenly stood up, his body rigid as he turned his head and peered into the dark corridor on our left.

"Noll," he said in a strange, half-strangled voice. "It's coming."

"What?" Naru asked, and suddenly, three large rapping noises sounded on the walls, after which we were all swept off our feet as the floor beneath us gave a huge jolt that left me breathless.

I felt the shock and pain as my head hit the edge of the ornate table beside me, and I lost consciousness and plunged into the arms of the darkness.

* * *

><p>When I woke up, or rather, when I thought I had woken up, I opened my eyes and turned my head sideways to see bright <em>onibi<em> rising from the floor beneath me. I raised my upper body from the ground shakily and tried to remember what had happened before this.

"Mai? Mai!" Gene was immediately beside me, a comforting arm wrapping around my shoulders as I leaned to him, shock widening my eyes as I remembered it all.

"We got separated," Gene told me softly. "Can you feel yourself? You got thrown off from your body. Maybe we can find each other if you pinpoint where your body is now."

"Where are Naru and Lin-san?" I asked him worriedly, noticing that he smelled faintly of roses, soothing my frayed nerves.

"Lin's with me; Noll's with you." Gene sighed. "Take deep breaths, Mai. You're making me shake like a leaf."

I just noticed then that I had been clinging to him tightly and shivering so violently that my teeth was chattering.

"Are you cold?" Gene asked me, apparently worried about my lack of response. "Although now that I think of it, it's impossible to get cold here in the third plane…"

"How will I find my body?" I asked him through gritted teeth. "I need to find out whether Naru is alright…"

"First, calm yourself down," he told me sternly. "You're basically a spirit now… All violent emotions will keep you from entering your body."

"Alright," I said, inhaling and exhaling slowly as I tried to steady myself.

"Pace your breathing to my counts," Gene instructed me. "One… _two_… three… _four_…"

Breathe in. _Out_. In. _Out_.

My heartbeats were finally slowing down as I succeeded in calming down. "What now?"

"Stand up and we'll explore every inch of this spiritually-sealed place," he told me.

"Spiritually sealed? So that's why we haven't seen it in that last dream?" I asked him as he helpfully pulled me to my feet.

"Yes," he affirmed. "Shall we go?"

I nodded, my lips tightly pressed together when he pulled me through the labyrinthine passage, _onibi_ floating all around us as we proceeded.

* * *

><p>"Where are Naru and Lin?" Ayako gasped as she dragged a paper-pale Masako into the room. The medium was slowly blinking and gasped as if she had just woken up from a deep sleep.<p>

"They went to investigate more about the building," Madoka told them with a worried look as she helped Ayako to deposit Masako on a nearby chair. "They won't be back for a while."

"At this time of night? What are _they_, idiots?" Ayako snapped, breathing hard as she sat on an armchair near the window. "If the idiot monk hadn't told me to come up already…!" She became tongue-tied, and so had to stop, instead settling for darkly muttering about "the idiot monk".

Madoka sighed to herself and patted Masako's shoulder soothingly before going to make a pot of tea, silently praying with all her might that Naru knew what he was getting himself into.

* * *

><p>Gene and I were drifting on for quite some time before I had seen my physical body. Naru was sitting on the carpet right beside me, the electric torch that he had been using earlier still safely with him as he used it to peer at the blackened walls. My body was lying there like a limp doll.<p>

"I think we can meet up somewhere at the end of the passage," Gene told me. "Just keep south, and we'll see each other again. I'm now telling Noll."—sure enough, Naru had looked up at that moment with a stunned expression, before settling back down and emptying his face of all emotion—"He's like a human compass, so you can go back now and trust in his sense of direction. I can tell you everything after we meet up, 'kay? Now, relax and feel in the dark and remember all your human sensations so that you can go back in your body."

I tried to recall everything as he had instructed—pain, sorrow, joy, _anger_—and I felt myself being pulled out of the plane into my world.

"Good luck, Mai, see you soon," Gene told me, and with a final reassuring squeeze of my hand, he was gone and I was back.

* * *

><p>"Mai. <em>Mai<em>!"

I opened my eyes slowly, and saw ice-blue eyes staring back at me. I cried out with surprise and would have smacked my forehead against Naru's if he hadn't moved out of my way. I tried to scowl at him, but winced when I accidentally moved my head. It was still throbbing painfully from the blow that I had received earlier.

"Are you alright?" he demanded when I flinched, and I shook my head tentatively. He didn't look as if he was convinced in any way, but he refrained from forcing the question.

He scoffed as he sat back on the wall, an electric torch in his slender hands as he played with its light, running the beam all around the walls.

"Always the ever-noisy Mai. Couldn't wake up properly without a sound."

"It's your fault. You startled me!"

Naru stared at me. "Well, whoever's fault it is, can we please stop dawdling and move on? We wasted ten minutes because I was waiting for you to wake up."

"Shouldn't have waited for me then." I glared at him and crossed my arms.

"If I did, I wouldn't have heard the end of it from Gene," he replied, standing up. Against the light from the torch, he looked like a shadow, tall, dark, and willowy. He must've grown a few more inches ever since I first met him.

"Stop gawking at me, Mai, and stand up. Or shall I have to carry you? You look as if you can't even trust your own feet."

Eh? Oh, I'm staring at him again. And, _again_, he caught me. As simple as that… _not_?

"I'm standing," I snapped with a deep blush, the woozy feeling disappearing, and stood up to look him in the face with an irritated look. "There, happy?"

"Not necessarily." He turned away smoothly and started down the passage. "This way."

"_Jerk_…" I rolled my eyes, but grudgingly followed him. He has the only source of light in here, after all. No choice. And Gene did tell him, after all…

* * *

><p>A shrill sound whistled past us as we walked on, making me look up but see nothing.<p>

"What was that?"

"I would have thought that you'd have familiarized yourself with that by now," Naru replied coolly. "It's one of Lin's _shiki_."

"Oh." We walked on in relative silence, but I decided to lift the heavy awkwardness by asking him—

"How does it feel to have an onii-san, Naru?"

He glanced with surprise at me. "Why are you asking me that all of a sudden?"

"Well, I suddenly wanted to know," I told him. "I should ask now, or I'll forget later."

"You have a point, given your level of intelligence," he said with a raised eyebrow, making me narrow my eyes. "Well, I think there's no harm in answering that question, but…" He gazed up ahead with a distracted air, the beam of light from the torch never wavering as we continued. "Let's just say that having a sibling is nice. That is, if you get to have someone who wasn't a nuisance. And certainly, Gene doesn't fall on that category. So if I had to answer, I'd settle your question by answering that having an elder brother is a nuisance and a plague."

"Erm…" I sighed. He really was a merciless speaker.

"But…"

I held my breath as Naru spoke again, my ears hardly daring to believe that I was actually wringing out a sensible reply from my narcissist.

"Gene had fulfilled more than a brother's role for me," Naru continued, blue eyes staring off into the surrounding darkness as I stared at the carpet, the path of bright light on it leading from the electric torch in his hand. "He was also a parent and a best friend… He was patient and kind. Too patient, actually…" His gaze deepened in the dark, and I watched him intently. "He was the disobedient and the more rebellious one, but overall, he was the better man. Figuratively, he could make even dead flowers bloom again by just passing by." His smile was bitter, conflicted, forlorn… but still heartbreakingly beautiful.

"Naru," I muttered with a severe tone, "You don't think that everyone believes that one, do you?"

He glanced at me. His expression was haunting—it was blank and empty, as if saying that he was already closed off from further suggestions. "Mai, can you _even_ hear yourself? That's coming from a sixteen-year-old driven by a lot of energy and with next to no common sense."

"Hey!" I huffed, but with a suddenly moody look, he turned away and continued to walk, his pace quickening.

"Wait, _Naru_—!" I struggled to keep up, while all the while, something was disturbing me in my mind.

To think that the narcissistic Naru-chan, who had an ego the size of the universe, could have developed something like an inferiority complex to his own twin brother?

—It was just… very perturbing.

* * *

><p><em>When Noll was very young, he used to always tag along with his elder brother because of only one reason.<em>

_"Noll, smile for me!"_

_Gene can always make him smile. And laugh. Or even make him do anything he won't normally do for another._

_"Noll!" Gene would yell. "Smile for me!"_

_And Noll would. The action was foreign to his naturally grave face (Tou-san used to joke that Kaa-san had accidentally dropped Noll in the coal bin when he was still small and that was why he was always so serious, but Noll can't make anything out of it), but Noll would always do it. Just for Gene._

_And unlike most siblings, their relationship went from good to even better as they grew older. Even with Gene's new playmates, Noll was never left out. He was always Gene's best friend. The best._

_Noll could already read in both English and Japanese and do first-grader arithmetic at only two years of age, and write in both languages when he was three. Tou-san had called him a prodigy, while Kaa-san had called him 'the peaceful one' because of his inability to be shaken out of his calm exterior._

_Noll loved to be referred to like that._

_It made him feel special. Well, he had been special right from the start, right?_

_And so, Noll, the peaceful one, lived like a spoiled, pampered prince, indulged with praises and encouragement, until his seventh year._

_Because that was when the tragedy struck._

_After the earthquake, Noll was found unharmed in the midst of the ruins of their house, huge concrete pieces that once were the walls surrounding him. He had miraculously escaped with only a broken leg, the doctors finding no explanation when his bones seemed to mend faster than the other children's. And in the third day, Noll was already half-healed, up and about, his blue eyes wide as he snuck past the questing eyes of the doctors and the nurses and the aides all about. He had been a naturally smart young person, and when his young mind came up with the assumption that Gene should be alive and somewhere in this building, he immediately resolved to find his brother._

_"Gene?"_

_He was there, his usually happy and smiling brother, but now, Noll could see nothing but loss in his eyes._

_"Noll…"_

* * *

><p><em>Seven-year-old Noll found out that something had significantly changed in him after the earthquake tragedy, but entrusted his secret only to his twin.<em>

_He found that he can inadvertently send objects flying about erratically in the room whenever he gets upset, or a bit too happy, or even when he wasn't feeling any emotion at all._

_Noll immediately classified himself as a freak, and thus turned to books for company._

_And even while he was reading, the books on the shelves behind him in the library would fly off, and he would still feel as if he was an outcast._

_The other kids in the orphanage kept away from him once they've gotten wind of the situation._

_They called him a "blue-eyed terror"._

_Noll felt a myriad of things while this childhood persecution was going on. That he was worthless, evil, dirty, and unable to keep Gene smiling for as long as he could._

_He was worthless. An imperfect person. Unlike Gene. And that was the feeling that he would recall to mind whenever someone would compare the two of them._

_Maybe, just maybe, Noll pondered, this really was the moment when he developed the need to become perfect._

* * *

><p><em>The twins' relationship strengthened even more after their adoption by the Davises. Noll and Gene clung to each other, whispering in Japanese that struck their foster parents as unintelligible to their ears. Now that they were whisked away to a foreign land, the native tongue of their biological parents promised them comfort.<em>

_"Luella, did I hear right? You're going to take _Japanese _lessons?" Martin asked his wife incredulously._

_"Yes. All their whispering… it's driving me mad." Luella sighed. "I can't stand not knowing what's troubling the both of them." The lengths of what she'd do just to be a good mother… Luella shook her head sadly and went back to her papers._

* * *

><p><em>Their relationship, however, changed drastically when they entered high school.<em>

_Gene began entering his rebellious phase, while Noll was still stuck in his own time plane, acting much more mature than most of their batch mates. Gene experienced how to flirt, to slack off, to cut classes, to drive illegally, to taste alcohol, and at one point, his grades were so dangerously near sea level that Noll put his foot down and began the tedious task of making Gene do his assignments. Gene was stubborn, though, and would refuse with such a sweet manner that will force Noll into caving in and leave him wondering where his formerly responsible brother had gone._

_"Gene, don't you care about anything anymore?" Noll was forced to raise his voice when Gene attempted to sneak out again one evening._

_"Noll," Gene would wheedle him with an irresistibly pleading look, and Noll's grave eyes would look guilty as he was forced to watch his brother drift farther away from him._

_When Gene shrugged off the experiments one day and decided to come and eat dinner once again with his family, Noll had looked up at him with narrowed eyes._

_"Long time no see."—sarcastically._

_Gene smiled uneasily. "Yeah."_

_Luella had been taken aback by her elder son's reappearance to dinner, but tactfully acted as if it was no deal. "Noll, please fetch your brother a plate and some utensils."_

_"He can get his own," Noll mumbled. Luella glared at him pointedly._

_"Oliver."_

_"Alright." Very unwillingly, Noll stood up and set Gene's usual place opposite him, careful to avert his eyes from Gene's sorrowful ones._

_"So, what's going on with school these days, Gene?" Martin asked lightly as Gene dug in rather enthusiastically. "I've heard that you were near to scraping the bottom?"_

_Gene smiled guiltily. "Oh, I'm just a bit preoccupied with… other stuff."_

_Noll coughed skeptically, earning him a sharp look from Luella._

_"Pardon me," Noll said politely, but a thin layer of sarcasm was still present. Luella chose to ignore it._

_"I see," Martin nodded. "What stuff?"_

_Gene bit his lip uncertainly. "Well, you see…"_

_Noll looked up with fiery eyes and decided that Gene should at least experience the right punishment._

_"He's seeing someone from my chemistry class, that's why he's so nice today," Noll put in swiftly, a spark of mischief in his eye as both Gene and Luella were flabbergasted, Gene due to disbelief, and Luella due to shock._

_"Oliver," Luella snapped at Noll, "is this true?"_

_"I never lie," Noll said smugly, glaring at Gene's dismayed face. "I heard them talking about it. Gene's a member of the football team, he's bound to be talked about all the time. Especially concerning his, shall we say, relationships. And on some days, I see them together. Gene hasn't any problem with PDA, or so I've noticed."_

_Score one for Oliver. Noll could tell that this night was going to be fun as Luella turned to Gene slowly, her snarl frightening Gene to silence._

_"You are in so much trouble, young man…"_

* * *

><p><em>"Did you have to be the one to tell her that?" Gene sighed dolefully and winced as he felt his stinging cheek, where Luella had slapped him in anger over her son's secret. Noll sat up on his bed, smirking.<em>

_"Well, consider it payback for all those times when you weren't at home," Noll replied scathingly, and Gene glomped him in reply._

_"Aw, Noll, don't get mad," he said happily._

_"Gerroff me," Noll gasped, Gene's weight making him lose his balance and send them tumbling on the bed. The two boys began wrestling with each other until Noll triumphantly shoved Gene off the bed._

_"Ow, that was fun." Gene rubbed the top of his head and sat up on the rug with a playful grin. "But seriously, Noll, are you… jealous?"_

_"Of what," Noll said coldly._

_"Well, you don't have anyone—"_

_"Yeah, well, you're the only one that I've got," Noll interrupted him, sitting up and frowning distastefully. "And then you go off and be friends with people that I don't think of as suitable company, and they teach you how to drink and drive and manage to do both without barely killing yourself. Next thing I know, you've got yourself a girlfriend and I'm the last person to find out." Noll let out a bitter laugh. "Gene, do you really think that I'm that stupid?"_

_Gene stood up and sat beside him to put an arm around his twin's shoulders. "I'm sorry."_

_Noll sighed and pushed him off, hating himself when he instantly forgave his brother. "Needn't be."_

_Gene smiled. "What have I done to deserve you?"_

* * *

><p><em>"Gene, do you think we'll ever see them again?"<em>

_"Who, Tou-san and Kaa-san?" Gene would look astonished. "But Noll, they're dead."_

_"I know." Noll would scowl. "But if there was a way to talk to them again, would you take the chance?"_

_"I dunno," Gene would say uncertainly. "Can we not raise that subject up, please? You're getting on my nerves…"_

_And when Noll realized that Gene and him had already grown up, he decided that both of them had already gone their separate ways. Gene had decided to remain in the present, while Noll had decided to live for the past. So after that conversation, he promptly shut himself up and severed his already weakened psychic connection with Gene. Just like that._

* * *

><p><em>"Oh, so your name is… Oliver Davis?" The redheaded young woman behind the desk looked up at Noll with an amiable smile. "So you're really as young as what Professor Davis had told me, hm?"<em>

_"I'm going to be sixteen this month," Noll said, very straightforwardly. He decided not to say that he disliked being called by his western name._

_"Yes, well…" The young woman stood up and looked him from head to toe. "You'll do, really. It's just that not many youngsters today are into real paranormal stuff. You have an impressive academic record, and your other abilities are equally well-received too… I've heard of that experiment wherein you lifted a fifty-kilogram steel ball using your PK. That is a feat in itself!"_

_Noll stared into the young woman's eyes stolidly and awaited the final blow._

_"The question, my dear, is this…" The redhead leaned forward and smiled evenly. "Can you survive the great Professor Madoka Mori's survival coursework in the fieldwork division of SPR? If you show me how smart you really are, I'll send you in the theoretical fieldwork group instead of the technical group. I don't like the guys there—they're all so moody."_

_"Theoretical fieldwork?"_

_"My dear boy," Madoka sighed. "It's hard to explain, but… In layman's terms, a parapsychological fieldwork observation would be what you call… a 'ghost hunt'."_

_Noll's breath hitched in his throat._

_This… is it…_

_"Hm? Well?"_

_Noll's blue eyes glinted._

_"I'm in, Professor Mori."_

_Madoka smiled. "You may not be Davis by blood, but you are Davis in spirit." She walked over to the door and threw it open. "Come, I'm going to give you a tour of the laboratory."_

* * *

><p><em>Madoka ran her eyes over the both of them. Noll was standing stiffly beside Koujou Lin, who looked as if he didn't want to be here but Madoka had somehow forced him to. Noll hadn't really wondered about that. He had had the feeling that Madoka was somehow like a control freak.<em>

_"You two can speak Japanese, right?" was Madoka's first question._

_"Yes," Lin replied just as Noll opened his mouth. Noll glared at Lin._

_"I see. Then we have to make do and just send you both to Japan by yourselves."_

_"What?" Noll said suddenly, and because of his surprise, the cup on Madoka's desk cracked neatly in two perfectly symmetrical halves. It was Lin's turn to glare at him._

_Madoka decided to ignore it, even as Noll expected to be fired any minute now when the tea inside the cup traveled to the papers on Madoka's desk and drenched them._

_"Ah, didn't Prof Davis tell you? He just approved your idea of coming to Japan. Well," Madoka picked up a piece of half-sodden paper (Noll flinched inwardly) and scanned the contents. "Yep. Says that this trip is for 'a study of the curse techniques and paranormal activity in Japan'. That's his signature over there," she pointed at the scrawled letters that somehow spelled out 'M. Davis' on the bottom of the paper. "And Noll, some anonymous person wanted to talk to you over the phone. He told us that he might get you the funds you'll need when you're already there. It's a very bright stroke of luck, Oliver Davis, so don't you blow this one."_

_Noll could hardly believe his luck. Was he actually getting away with this?_

_"Well?" Madoka fixed them with a curious look. "There's the phone, Noll. And here's your potential benefactor's number. Call."_

* * *

><p><em>"What should we put on your passport, Oliver?" Lin asked him with a concentrated gaze as he examined the papers in front of him.<em>

_Noll smiled at the question, the answer already formed in his mind. "Shibuya Kazuya."_

_Lin looked up at him, his eyes asking the unspoken question._

_"You wanted to know the reason? Fine," Noll sighed. "Shibuya was the maiden name of my biological mother, while Kazuya…" He hesitated._

_"What?"_

_"…Please write it using the characters for 'one' and 'to be'."_

_And from then on, Noll, the peaceful prince, became Shibuya Kazuya. Noll would like to think of the name to mean, 'to be a bitter valley'. Quite unlike the original meaning of that eerily similar name that his mother would often call him._

* * *

><p><strong>AN:**

XD This chapter is a bit rushed, I know.

First half of File 9. I lied and split the chapter into two halves so that I won't have to worry about it crashing my iPod whenever I send it to my e-mail. Next chapter WILL showcase the PK thing. 'Kay?

**NOTES**:

_Shibuya_ means 'bitter valley'. Maybe a reference to its location?

_Kazuya_ has, like, a half-dozen meanings. One of those meanings is 'to be one', another is 'the peaceful one'. Depends on the kanji. In Naru's case, Ono-san wrote his name with the first meaning in mind.

* * *

><p><strong>Please do review!<strong>


	10. Correspondence

_**A Tale of Two Brothers**_

* * *

><p><strong>IMPORTANT<strong>! Read this! DL, DR!

**Pairings**: NaruMai. My one and only Ghost Hunt OTP.

**Genres**: Supernatural & Romance

**Disclaimer**: I will never own Ghost Hunt, 'kay? All rights reserved by all concerned parties.

* * *

><p><strong><em>File 9.2<em>**_:_  
><em>Correspondence<em>

* * *

><p>"There you are!"<p>

In an instant, as we rounded a corner, Gene came flying out of the dark and crashing onto Naru, while a bemused Lin-san and I watched from the side.

"Get off me."—coldly.

"Aw Noll!" Gene broke away from him, a huge smile on his pale face. Naru scowled and shot him a glare.

"Shall we continue? It's only getting later as we waste time." Naru rubbed his shoulder. "And that was a bit excessive…"

Gene smiled without any apology. "I'm sorry!"

No one believed him, though. As was per usual.

Anyways, we had reached a dead end in between the end of the two halls. A set of double doors, however, stared back at us, the dull silver of the doorknobs worn with disuse and time. I looked at Gene and Naru and saw them glancing at each other, as if confirming something between them silently.

Gene sighed and gently turned the knob of one door. The door creaked open, and we all introduced ourselves into the wonder of the room beyond.

It was wallpapered a dark red, while the carpet was a lighter shade of the same color. Portraits hung on the walls, and a singular feature presented itself in the middle.

A grand piano.

And it looked as if it was still well-taken care of. Naru touched the surface of the keyboard cover with a tentative manner (Gene looked unusually solemn at this) and ran his fingers over the glossy finish. When he drew his hand away, I was startled.

No dust. Not even a traceable speck. After three-odd years of no one maintaining it, shouldn't it be covered with dust now?

"Bing-o," Gene whispered into the silence, and to my surprise, it made Naru smile.

* * *

><p><em>Day 5. 11:19 am. <em>

We were all silent as we stayed in base. Gene was looking so unusually moody that Bou-san feared that he had been possessed by a spirit (yeah, I know, right), but he assured us that that wasn't the case.

"Even I can get tired too, you know," he told us with a colorless smile. It worried me more than I could admit, so I just decided to look out of the window. The others had been feeling out of sorts too, so Mori-san took upon herself to occupy the role of tea distributor. I let her since she insisted, and of course, it was useless to even reason with her.

Naru was already gone by the time we all assembled ourselves earlier for breakfast, but Lin told us that Naru was just in the local library to search for something. What that particular something was, I can't make anything out of it.

I noticed something else, though. That even the sky was a depressing gray.

"It's raining," Gene remarked quietly, and we watched as the first drops finally hit the earth.

He smiled at me.

"I do fear the rain. Do you know why?" He looked up. "Their whispers get louder once the temperature drops. That's part of the reason why I can't stay in England any longer. And now it's raining again."

I watched him for a while before looking away from his bleak depression, and since all of us were out of sorts, I decided to use the perfect opportunity to get a nice long sleep.

* * *

><p>The swirling colors are rapidly changing direction.<p>

_Onibi _are rising from the floor beneath me.

No doubt, I had slipped into another dream.

Everything was getting clearer as I focused on the light, and after a moment, I finally found myself in a… garden.

Roses bloomed everywhere, while chrysanthemums also prevailed in different colors, yellow being the most common. I walked up the path to gaze at the lone butterfly that was perched on a particularly red rose, when someone walked into the garden.

It was the girl with the extremely dark hair and eyes, and she was looking at me disapprovingly.

"Julia, come. Lunch is ready." Her voice was a dark, angry red. "And he won't be coming over for today."

"Is it, already?" I answered blankly, and she scoffed. I felt as if I was terribly snubbed.

"Of course. And Vati told me to have you keep out those vile cats out of the house. They're bad for you." Red.

"No, they aren't," I replied calmly, while something was nagging at my mind. Julia? "I'm sure Vati would understand that they keep me company if I explain it to him myself."

"Oh, of course he would," the girl, Juliet, scoffed. "You're his favorite, that's why."

"Juliet," I told her reprovingly, and she crossed her arms and strode irritatedly off.

I watched her, then hurried close after. I soon reached the mansion, and I hurriedly turned the handle of the door and pushed it open. My heart was strangely beating as though it were flying, while a blush stole across my cheek.

Was he? Was he not?

He was there!

Naru—no, Gene, I thought with a bubble of confusion before I slapped it off with the waves of excitement that were filling my heart to the brim. He had kept his promise!

"Hello," he said, standing up from the couch, and I smiled back. His voice was a nice shade of blue. It calmed me.

"Hi."

At that precise moment, Juliet entered and smiled at Gene. She looked as if she wasn't particularly happy about seeing me with him, though.

"Hi, what are you doing here today? Did Vati want you over?"

"Oh, no." His smile widened. "I came to take Julia to Akagi. I did promise her last time, so…"

Juliet's smile strained, but she kept it up. "Oh, really? Can I join you? I mean, Julia isn't in the best of health, and maybe I should come along to set Vati at rest…"

I could now see that she wasn't going to let us spend time alone together. I felt frustrated, but I had no choice since he had already affirmed with a nod. How could he know her true feelings? How could we tell her?

The scene suddenly changed, and I found myself seated in front of a piano, pressing the keys that I familiarly knew, although at the same time they were not intelligible to me at all. Still that funny, detached feeling as if I was watching and playing a role at the same time.

A door slowly creaked open, and I didn't turn my head. I knew that it could just be Juliet—

"…!"

A blade suddenly went in my back, and at the next moment, I fell to the floor, paralyzed with shock. Someone pulled the knife off my back roughly and I could feel the warm stickiness of my own blood pool around me, seeping through the carpet and dyeing it a darker red.

"Sweet dreams, Julchen," a voice whispered into my ear as I drifted off. With a nasty shock, I realized that the voice was of my sister.

I was right. It _was_ just Juliet.

* * *

><p>I snapped awake, the revelation still shaking me, as I slowly realized that I was Taniyama Mai, not Julia Pfeiffer, that I didn't have a sister, that I didn't know how to even play the piano, and that I was still <em>alive<em>. Sort of.

"Are you alright?" a musical voice said above me, and I looked up wearily to stare into Gene's worried face over me. I gasped in surprise, and he quickly stepped away.

"I'm sorry!" he gasped with laughter as I threw a pillow at him in great annoyance. "I just went to check you more closely is all…"

"Shut up. Where's Naru?"

"So he's the first person you'd ever look for, huh? I'm _jealous_," he sighed with an irresistible kicked-puppy look. I was staring at him incredulously because of the statement when he smiled. "Just kidding. He's still not back. I was thinking that he must've gotten a bunch of really good stuff about the case. Either that or he just got lost in the reference section and forgot all about the research that he was supposed to be doing—but frankly, maybe that was a bit low to think of him like that too. Anyways, we just have to do what we are used to do around him."

"What?"

"We wait," he said simply, and in those mere two words I immediately felt a spark of faith shoot in my chest.

A silence, in which I noticed how alone we really are in the room. I checked my watch. It was a bit past twelve. "Are they all in the dining hall?"

"Yup." He then cocked his head at me. "Mai?"

"What?"

"You really think about him a lot, don't you?"

I had a shrewd feeling that I knew who he was referring to already, but I just decided to ask. "Who? Naru?"

"No, _Lin_. Of _course_, Noll." He was rolling his eyes at me.

I went over and punched him lightly in the arm. "I hate to admit this, but yes."

"That's nice," he smiled. "Back when we were kids, most people felt so alienated from him because of his standoffishness that they simply took Noll's existence for granted."

"Really?" I frowned at this. "He doesn't seem to me to be the type of guy who's content to blend in the background, though. I mean, he's so vain and… and _narcissistic_…"

"Oh, did you know that narcissism is a psychological disorder?" Gene said with a grin.

"It is?" I replied.

Gene began playing with the hem of his shirt. "Yup. And, like all disorders, Noll's narcissism has developed for a reason. Maybe it's his personal defense mechanism. I dunno, but you make it sound like one." He sighed. "Noll may be a bit self-centered at times whenever it comes to him comparing everyone else's intelligence to his, but most most of the time he goes around and tries to work quietly. I mean, you don't see him going out of his way just to brag about himself, right?"

"Really? _I_ don't think so, that's for sure."

He laughed. "Maybe it's a front so that you guys'll stay away from him. Who knows?"

"Again, shut up."

He laughed. "No one tells Eugene Davis when to shut up and succeeds."

"I had figured that out by myself, funnily enough."

"Heh." He stood up and went over to the window. "Look, the sun's peeking over the clouds again."

"Yeah," I affirmed, and we spent that peaceful moment in each other's company while watching the sky lighten up again.

The door suddenly opened, however, and in came Naru, with a black folder in his grasp and a grim look on his face.

"Come, I've already found out the root of all this evil," was his first words, and I now knew that he had already solved the case.

Gene tried a mischievous smirk on. "Good job, Professor Davis."

"That's right," Naru smirked back, and I knew that the two of them smirking at the same time wasn't good news.

* * *

><p>"We shall have this case all wrapped up by the next afternoon," Naru told us once all of SPR was finally settled in the base. "I have come to the conclusion that Julchen will never rest until we put the one at fault before her."<p>

"Nothing is more terrible than a woman's revenge," Gene said knowledgeably, and Bou-san grinned.

"_Ne_, _ne_, _bouya_, you're too young to know that one," he said with an amused look.

"Never too young, that's for sure," Gene replied lazily, and Bou-san snickered.

"But how can we 'put the one at fault before her', as you've so prettily said it?" Mori-san put in, sipping daintily out of a teacup.

"I've already sent for her," Naru said confidently. "She'll be here first thing in the evening."

Bou-san accidentally spat out the tea that he had just imbibed after hearing what Naru just said. "What? Seriously? Was it Takanashi Eri?"

"As for your question, Bou-san, I believe not."

Gene jokingly held up a hand. "High five, little brother."

"Shut up."

"All of you really enjoy ordering me to shut up, don't you?" he sulked.

"But how could you know that it's going to stop all these phenomena?" Bou-san said, looking as intrigued as the rest of us. "And Takanashi was the obvious—"

"To effectively hide something, Takigawa-san, you have to put it in plain sight." Gene smiled benignly from his seat like a mischievous angel.

"Shut up, _bouya_," Bou-san said jokingly.

Gene gasped melodramatically and slumped in his chair as if shot. "You're _kidding_ me, right?"

My narcissist sighed and steepled his fingers as if debating whether to satisfy our curiosities or doom us with the feeling of ignorance. "Fine, I shall present all of my findings to you." Naru placed the folder that he was holding earlier on the table and opened it. Inside was a collection of newspaper clippings, photographs, and papers. "I asked Hara-san late last night about the possession that she had undergone in the dining hall, and she has confirmed that the spirit there wasn't indeed of Takanashi Eri. However, that doesn't rule her out immediately as Julchen's murderer."

"Why is that?"

"I have my reasons to think that that may very well be the case here, Bou-san. First is the insistence of Franz Pfeiffer about the fact that his second wife wasn't the culprit. Why defend her if she was indeed the killer? Wouldn't his fatherly instincts lash out at the first possible suspect, which was Takanashi Eri, since it was evident that Eri and Juliet do not get along?" Naru pulled out a piece of paper from the folder and perused it. "And that made me confirm one thing. That that someone clearly tried to push off his or her crime onto the first person that would clearly have a hand in the crime."

Gene smiled dryly. "Marvelous, Holmes."

"Hardly," Naru scoffed back, which made us smile. "Also, another thing that I noted was about Gene's information about Juliet's younger twin sister. Julia Pfeiffer, to be exact."

"She had a twin sister?" Ayako looked surprised.

"Gene had a clairaudient trance which handed him the fact. It was the missing link that I had needed. If he hadn't retrieved that information, I would have confused everything and made a jumble of all that facts."

Gene smiled like the Cheshire Cat. "You know, I could totally rub it in your face later!"

Naru deadpanned at him. "Do you know what I was going to say at this very minute?"

Gene wisely clammed up after that.

"And couldn't have we retrieved that information some other way?" Ayako wondered.

"Impossible," Naru said shortly. "Julia was naturally the weaker twin because she was the last in order of birth. It seemed as if she had some sort of chronic disease that prevented her from going out of the house at long stretches of time. Thus, no one outside the family and the house servants even knew of her. However, there was one exception. And that was the gardener's twenty-year-old son, by the name of Arakawa Daisuke."

Gene slyly grabbed his twin's teacup and drank it all.

Naru distastefully decided to ignore the offender, even though his eyes were already narrowed with apparent annoyance. "I assume you'd know what went on next?"

"Er, the girls both fell for Arakawa, I guess?" Bou-san hazarded.

"Correct." Naru finally decided to grace Gene with a look. Gene was blissfully unrepentant. "Now, are you going to say anything?"

Gene smiled. "Nothing. Please do go on."

"I guess." Naru crossed his arms and sat back. "Considering the outcome of it all, there must have been an incident wherein Daisuke began to fall for Julia too. This must have spiked Juliet's extreme envy, and she must have contrived to hatch a plan to get rid of her twin for good, and at the same time not shed any blame on herself.

"She must have then realized how things could be done her way. At this point, I used psychometry on the piano to trace the psychic energy left on the place and what I saw, I coupled with speculation. Disguising herself as Julia, she might have went one night into the room where her sister was currently practicing on the piano, and had stabbed her."

"I should have thought," Gene said with an accusing look.

"The energy left was too faint to harm," Naru told him with a sigh. "Well, this is another, but Franz might have suspected that his daughter was the culprit, although he might've not recognized Juliet for who she really was, and so avoided both scandal and trouble by declaring that Eri, whom Juliet had also framed for the crime because of her hate for her stepmother, is innocent and that his dead daughter must have been the victim of a third person. Juliet, who was still disguised as Julia, could then use Franz's preference to her sister as a means to persuade her father to cover up the business, and Daisuke's attraction to her sister to make him fall in love with her."

"That's horrid," I remarked softly, thinking of the dream that I had. Julia had seen all of the signs of her sister's hate, yet still chose to ignore them and loved her all the better for it. And yet…

"Another is of the confusing news of Franz Pfeiffer's sudden suicide."

"What about it?"

"I went through Yasuhara-san's files again, and I found that the details of the suicide weren't clear. Why would a wealthy man, already in the prime of his life, attempt a suicide without any motivation to do so?" Naru leaned forward to rest his arms and stared seriously down at the news clipping that he had pulled out. "What I found from one of the past neighbors of the Pfeiffers' gardener was that the day right before the suicide, Arakawa Daisuke had suddenly disappeared."

"Ha." Bou-san whistled. "This doesn't even—"

"On the contrary, it makes perfect sense," Naru said. "Why do you think the property was all transferred without fuss to Takanashi Eri's hands? Couldn't Juliet, disguised as her twin sister, have complained of the claims? But why did no one file a protest?" Naru's eyes were glittering dryly.

"Does that mean that Juliet eloped with Daisuke?" John mused with a thoughtful look.

"So it seems," Gene said lightly. "And they must have gotten married."

"Well, that's the end of all my deductions. I then went to the library and searched every inch of the phone book until I found every Arakawa Daisuke in the country (which must've been a lot! le gasp!). I also cross-referenced the computers there, which luckily held Internet connection, and then I called them all up."

"What a thorough guy," Gene grumbled. "You'll go blind because of all of those reading someday soon."

"Well, one thing is clear," Ayako remarked. "That even though Juliet did terrible things, it was still all out of love. I mean, didn't she have the perfect chance to plot to kill her father and take all of the estate for her own? But still, she chose to love a mere gardener's son and eloped with him for the sake of her love."

"First sensible thing you've ever said in, like, months?" Bou-san remarked jokingly, which made Ayako throw her handbag at him.

"Ow!"

"Ne, Naru, who was the ghost in the dining hall? Was it Takanashi Eri?" I asked, but it was Masako who answered.

"No. It was one of the maids." Masako held her kimono sleeve over the lower half of her face and looked over at Naru as if wanting him to confirm her statement.

"Indeed it was." Naru pulled another clipping. "It turned out that Takanashi Eri wasn't even in the house the moment the fire broke out since she was in Tokyo to take care of something unspecified. The screams, evidently, had come from the maid who had never been found. The Takanashi family did leave the day after the reports had been given, but it was totally unrelated to what just happened."

I see. So that's what's happened. I felt enlightened, in a sense.

* * *

><p><em>April, day 6. 4:12 pm.<em>

I accompanied Naru as we waited for Arakawa Daisuke and Juliet by the orphanage gate, feeling the warm afternoon air settle over us like a calming presence. I didn't know what to think of how I felt as I stood by that gate, though. Could I be feeling pure relief, that this case was finally going to be over? Or maybe something not quite permeable?

"Naru."

"Mm?" He had his eyes calmly fixed on the road, but turned them toward me with a curious glance. "What was it?"

"What do you think of this case?"

"Do my feelings about this case have anything to do with you?" What a nice conversationalist he was.

"Of course. It'll satisfy my curiosity."

He watched me with something akin to amusement, before saying, "I don't feel anything but relief to see this case to its close."

Huh? Funny.

"Nothing else?" I persisted.

"Mai, didn't I keep on telling you that you shouldn't get too attached to cases and clients?" he sighed with annoyance. "Satō Asami is merely a vessel wherein this case had been first presented. Then one after the other the facts present themselves. We organize them, observe the phenomena, and record them all in camera. Ghost hunting is based on observation. We don't need to necessarily do an exorcism, but we still do it as a token of appreciation to the opportunity that the clients have presented us. All in all, those cases that we've solved are just mere tools with which to base information from."

"Hmph." I pressed my lips tightly together and looked away from the automaton-feel-a-like beside me, determinedly staring at the mountains in the distance, when the vehicle that we've been waiting for finally arrived. With a delicate pause, it stopped in front of the gates and let a woman out.

She was still young, not older than twenty-three, perhaps, which would make her around Ayako's age (although, well…). She was simply dressed, and her startlingly dark eyes and slightly foreign features alerted me to her identity. She went over to the driver's side window to tell the driver to come pick her up later, and finally turned to approach us.

"Good afternoon," she greeted us with flawless Japanese. Her accent was nearly unidentifiable. "May I see Shibuya-san?"

"So you are Arakawa Julia-san?" Naru asked smoothly, stepping aside to let her in. "It's my pleasure to be able to finally meet you. I am Shibuya Kazuya. I called you yesterday to speak to you about your, ah, sister."

I understood his use of the name Julia. It wouldn't do to have her at her guard already, but I could already see the glimmer of suspicion in her dark eyes.

"You are very young," she replied.

"They all tell me that," Naru said coolly, "but I think that it wouldn't take much age to discover secrets buried in the sand." And gesturing to the building, he said, "Shall we, Arakawa Julia-san? Or should you prefer, Juliet-san? I think it's better if we keep things straight to the point."

She looked alarmed at the sudden address and opened her mouth as if to protest, but I could see the sturdiness of her spirit as she slowly calmed down and closed her mouth with a resigned look.

"You caught me there," she said with a smile, "but I think it'll do me no harm if I do, right?"

And thus, as we entered the orphanage, I cue the phrase 'enter Juliet Pfeiffer'. The true one.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:**

**GH Trivia**: _Once Naru gets really angry, he gets straightforward and flat with the person. So as long as Naru is on the sarcastic side, you're safe. Or so Madoka tells Mai._

I'm afraid that everyone telling Gene to shut up had become a running gag in this chapter…:3 And yeah, Mai has referred to Naru in this story as 'my narcissist' about three times already, lulz. Anyways, she was the one who thought of the term to describe his huge ego, so it won't hurt.

I was getting scared of the plot hole fairy. Lol. Anyways, kinda refreshing to write all those chapters with all those little holes that you can fill up at the end. I hope I didn't confuse anyone throughout the story… (sweatdrop) And I lied again and decided to cut out the PK scene and paste it on the next chapter, :D.

And I was too busy Facebooking (read: playing Tetris) that I didn't realize that this chapter was already ready, LOL. ~Caps lock freaking rules. :D

Don't tell anybody else, but I applied for a course in AB Creative Writing in the top university in the Philippines! (claps) I didn't even tell my mom… She's working in the States, which is like, separated from here by a whole chunk of ocean. That's like, what, two thousand miles? Better not rouse the sleeping tigers, ROFL. Wish me luck, fellow writers. Next year, I will be going to college. FINALLY.

* * *

><p><strong>Please do review!<strong>

**Thank you to **Jade Starlight**, **Music-Lover2011**, **LadyChrystalline**, **lalaoo** and **Cremateme** for the 'mazing reviews. Boy, you made me cry tears of joy when I read your reviews for the first time! :3 Rest assured that I have read, reread, loved, and worn those reviews thin because of all my return trips to the review page!:3**

**I promise that I'm going to harass my Yahoo mail for more alerts until it almost gets tired of me until I read more of your reviews! :) **_Nya_


End file.
